Why Science Is Like One Big Potlatch – The Tyee

The Coast Salish had it right: sharing fish, or data, gets you more than hoarding.

“Potlatch” is an Anglicized version of the Nuu-chah-nulth word pachitle, a ceremonial feast with two huge benefits for the people who practised it. Potlatch ceremonies both redistributed wealth and maintained a healthy ecosystem and are in part what made the Pacific Northwest Coast famous in anthropology circles. The more a community had to give away during potlatch ceremonies, the richer the community. The wealthiest had access and rights to exploit natural resources, but they also had the responsibility of regulating the take to ensure a steady supply to the community. Potlatching was practised up and down the coast, each community had its own variations, but the core ideal — reciprocity — was the same.

In studying up on the ritual, I dove into H.G. Barnett’s 1938 dissertation “The Nature and Function of the Potlatch.” I was grateful to discover it is not painful to read. In fact, if Barnett is any indication, researching and writing a dissertation was more fun in 1938 than it is today. No slogging through a long genealogy of anthropological writing, redefining every anthropological term ever found in print. Barnett simply dips the readers into a world, in this case Coast Salish, where wealth came from the land and sea, the rich were expected to “pay” what they could afford and the people expected everyone to give back as much or more than was received.