In this day and age an example of a potlatch would be a wedding reception. After the ceremony (which marks a significant point for the couple), normally there is a party/reception afterwards. These can either be intimate with just family and a few friends, or extravagant with hundreds of people. They gather at a nice facility to give their congratulations to the new couple, eat, and dance. Families drop thousands of dollars on these functions that last maybe 5 hours, just to show that they have to money to do so. They maybe have an open bar, gourmet food, a huge cake, or gift baskets for their guests. It all depends on the budget, but people do generally try to impress those who come to these receptions.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Potlatch-Abbey Dahl
Prior to this current time period potlatches were very different from contemporary potlatches. They were typically, "social occasions given by a host to establish or uphold," their status in society. A potlatch marked a significant period in one's lifetime. These gatherings lasted for many days and the amount of people that attended was decided on how wealthy the host was. This is where the competition came into play. People have gone bankrupt because of these parties. Everyone sometimes tries to out due the other potlatches. Some potlatches would be smaller, and others would invite almost the entire tribe or town. As seen in the video the host was giving out an ample amount of gifts to those who came to his potlatch. There were blankets, money, and other precious gifts being handed out. The guests shared food and had a wonderful time together.
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Potlatches were a great social gathering for the people of a village or society. People got together to share a tradition, and this event did mark an important time in a person's life. The potlatch though wasn't all about the feasting though, it was meant to be competitive among potlatch hosts; the bigger the potlatch, the more power a host had. Like you said, people could go bankrupt hosting one of those potlatch parties.
ReplyDeleteEven though I chose holiday feasts as my potlatch similarity, I can understand how you came up with wedding receptions. The wealthier of more powerful you are, you usually have more resources to throw an elaborate top-dollar wedding. Plus, brides tend to want to compete with other women to throw bigger and better weddings, and can drop thousands of dollars to throw a huge reception. The wedding also marks an important event for a couple and their families as well, exactly like the potlatch ceremony does.
I agree witb you that there are many ways in which potlatches are different today, however, in many ways there are still similarities. Parties today are still hosted by people wishing to outdo their competition and weddings thrown extravagantly to show off the wealth and power of the brides father, You make the comment that people do this to impress their guests. This is true, but in many respects it goes deeper than that. Impress, for sure, but also make known the amount of power a person holds- intimidation so that others are less likely to question or go against the person in question.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of being a little kid and my parents would ALWAYS try to out-do the other parents when giving my sister and I birthday parties. (I am 3 years older than my sister but our birthdays are only 2 days apart.) My parents made sure we invited lots and lots of people to the party because they wanted it to be big and awesome. Of course it was but it was still just a birthday part, I had just as much fun at the other kids' houses haha. But they treated it like it was their potlatch, now that I consider it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with sreynolds that women want their weddings to be bigger and better than the one before them, because they feel that is their time to celebrate and feast and give and recieve gifts... that is their potlatch.
so many different people in America today are experiencing potlatches in their life. It's just up to them (or us in this case) to notice!