kulan.
/ˈkuːlə/ In some Pacific communities, esp. in the Trobriand Islands, an inter-island system of ceremonial exchange of items as a prelude to or concomitant of regular trading.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > barter > [noun] > ceremonial exchange
kula1920
1920 B. Malinowski in Man XX. 97 (heading) Kula; the circulating exchange of valuables in the archipelagoes of eastern New Guinea.
1920 B. Malinowski in Man XX. 101 Glancing at the map we see a number of circles, each of which represents a certain sociological unit which we shall call a Kula community.
1927 B. Malinowski Sex & Repression in Savage Society ii. iii. 93 Those in charge of the overseas expeditions called Kula are often supposed to have dreams about the success of their ceremonial trading.
1951 R. Firth Elements Social Organization i. 3 The Trobriand islanders of New Guinea exchange in the kula.
1970 Nature 12 Dec. 1064/2 The best known exchange mechanism of this kind of recent times is the kula trade of the Trobriand islanders of the western Pacific.
Derivatives
kula v. to exchange ceremonial gifts in this manner.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > barter > [verb (intransitive)] > ceremonial exchange
kula1922
society > trade and finance > barter > [verb (transitive)] > ceremonial exchange
kula1922
1922 B. Malinowski Argonauts W. Pacific iii. 101 Several villages do not kula.
1922 B. Malinowski Argonauts W. Pacific xi. 281 Bokuyoba..gave the pair..to Kadamwasila..her son..kula'd it on to some of his southern partners.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1976; most recently modified version published online December 2020).
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n.1920