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Mains Prelims

Q4(c) · UPSC Civil Services Mains 2022 · Anthropology GS 1 · 15 marks · 1 min read

Q5(d) →

Critically examine various anthropological interpretations about the Kula Ring

Topic: Religion. Syllabus: 5. Religion: Anthropological approaches to the study of religion (evolutionary, psychological and functional); monotheism and polytheism; sacred and profane; myths and rituals; forms of religion in tribal and peasant Societies (animism, animatism, fetishism, naturism and totemism); religion, magic and science distinguished; magico-religious functionaries (priest, shaman, medicine man, sorcerer and witch). Same official PYQ from year-wise 2022 and Religion.

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Revision summary

Malinowski made kula a total social fact of the Massim. Mauss generalised the gift from kula and potlatch. Weiner restored women’s wealth and rank. Munn and others added fame and political economy. The ring is historical, not a frozen primitive market.

Model answer

Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.

Introduction

The kula is the ceremonial exchange of armshells and necklaces among Massim islands. Interpretations have moved from function to meaning, history, and power.

Body

Classic readings

  • Malinowski in Argonauts treated kula as a total social fact: partnership, magic, canoe, and rank, not barter. Reciprocity explained the circling of mwali and soulava.
  • Marcel Mauss used kula, with Northwest Coast potlatch, to theorise the gift as obligation to give, receive, and return.
  • Reo Fortune and later Annette Weiner stressed women’s wealth and the reproduction of rank, which Malinowski had underplayed.

Later critique

  • Nancy Munn read Gawa kula as fame and spatiotemporal value. Fred Damon and Jerry Leach mapped regional political economy.
  • Formalists tried to see delayed profit. Substantivists kept Polanyi’s reciprocity. Both miss that kula names are political.
  • Colonial and mission history changed routes. A timeless ring is an ethnographic postcard.

Balance

  • Kula is still the best teaching case that exchange can be the constitution of society. It is not a fossil of primitive trade, and it is not only a poem of solidarity.

Flow diagram

Flow diagram

Conclusion

Kula has been read as function, gift, female wealth, fame, and regional politics. Malinowski opened the file. Critique added gender, history, and power without deleting the ring.

Quick related

Students also ask

  • Shaman, sorcerer and medicine man

    Next question on this syllabus topic (2022 · Q5(d)). View answer →

  • Is kula still practised?

    Yes, in changed form, with new goods, cash, and politics on the islands.

  • Was kula only ceremonial?

    Ceremonial valuables moved with gimwali barter of food and pots. Malinowski distinguished the two.

Same topic · past papers

UPSC has asked this before

These previous-year questions sit on the same topic. Open one to practise the earlier ask.

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    Discuss various tools of data collection in conducting anthropological research

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  4. 2023 · Q4(b) · Anthropology GS 1 · 15 marks

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Q5(d) · UPSC Mains 2022 · Anthropology GS 1 · 10 marks · Solution

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A shaman uses trance and soul travel, as in Siberian cases Eliade used. A sorcerer harms by learned rite, as Azande sorcery shows. Witchcraft in Evans-Pritchard is a different, often inherited, accusation. A medicine man treats with herbs and ritual skill. Roles can overlap; the terms should not.

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Q1(a) · UPSC Mains 2021 · Anthropology GS 1 · 10 marks · Solution

Animism and Deep Ecology

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Tylor’s animism is belief in spiritual beings as the minimum of religion. Later work reads animism as relating to animals and places as persons. Naess’s Deep Ecology gives nature intrinsic worth beyond human use. The two meet as critiques of a dead, owned environment. They are not the same theory and must not revive Tylor’s ladder.

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