Potlatch - Sierra Armstrong

Potlatches are social occasions where friends, families, and everybody get along to feast and have a good time. We hold potlatches for special and significant occasions. Potlatches are held to show how much better a tribe or family is than another. They invite the others so that they can show off for them. I think in my society and family our "potlatches" are Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter holidays. Each holiday is spent at someone else's house. Each year they try and make the food and decorations better than the others. They also like to give out the best treats and gifts too. My great-aunt Fefe, who has Easter and my great-grandmother Thelma, who has Christmas have it easy because most families give out gifts for Easter and Christmas. My cousin Stephanie who has Thanksgiving tries to outdo everybodies food because that's all she really can do. All of our birthdays are pretty much ok because we are pretty spread out among age. So the kids dont really try to outdo the other kids birthdays until the get a little older.

LA-- I didn't really think about Sweet 16's until you mentioned it in your post even though I thought about birthdays. It is true because of the show called "My Super Sweet Sixteen" They are all competing and showing off how much they spent and how extravagent their gifts were.

Abbey Dahl-- I like how you mentiones weddings because they really are a competition for everyone. Every bride wants to have the most romantic and beautiful wedding.

Becca Libby - Potlatches

It's interesting to consider the history of potlatches and trying to think of an example in our own society. Historically, a potlatch was a gift giving celebration held by a tribe to celebrate with singing and dancing and exchange of goods. I think it would be nice if we had more celebrations like this in our society, however we don't exactly have "tribes" the way most people who held these celebrations did. The first thing that comes to mind for me, as many people mentioned is Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's the closest thing I can think of to a potlatch. Traditionally in the US these celebrations are meant mainly for just the family (unlike the traditional potlatch), but we still celebrate with our friends and sometimes families of friends. No doubt all cultures love to get together and eat and drink and socialize with one another, this is pretty universal, but gift giving is one thing that makes a potlatch special. I think people always feel good about gift giving, which is why we have so many celebrations that do so. In a tribal potlatch many of the gifts were food, spices, baskets, blankets and other universally useful things. Our own gift giving is not always as helpful. You know when grandma sends you something you will absolutely never touch or use in your life? I think this is also a major difference in our version of a potlatch and the old school version. It was so important to give a gift that would be helpful the the recipient, it may even be thought of as disrespectful to give something that would be useless to them.

Christmas Potlatches

Reading the article about potlatches, the first major holiday that came to my mind was a Christmas party! When we host such a celebration at my house, every family we invite courteously brings a plate or dish to share. This is a sign of thanks for the invitation, a symbol of friendship, and a commemoration of the event itself. Because we know other big families like ours, there’s always more food served than we all can eat! The ancient tradition of giving and receiving in a potlatch is also carried out during a Christmas party. It’s not only polite for the host to generously feed his/her guests, but it really captivates the spirit of the holiday by giving away some small gift as a Christmas present. Likewise, the guests should not only bring their food contribution, but also a few Christmas presents as well.

Potlatches

A potlatch is a big meal that the Native Americans have in the northwest. It is a dinner that everyone is invited to as they celebrate dancing, eating, gift giving, and singing. It expresses the generosity of their tribe. This would be much similar to Thanksgiving in my family. Everyone from both sides of my family come over to my house for a big meal and to watch the annual football game on Thanksgiving. Each family member bring over their best dish and we all have a big feast while enjoying each others company. It is similar to a potlatch because it is a large gathering of many people that invokes eating and socializing with one another.

Celebrating Potlatches, Sam Stangl

A potlatch is a feast that, in the times of modern man, lasted for days and days, but now only lasts maybe 1 or 2 days. For this feast, the members of a society trade food competitively to create what today would be known as a party.
There are many examples of feasts and parties that are similar to these potlatches that exist in American culture today. One of these is Thanksgiving: a huge supper than can include families as well as friends or even others from the community. In a sense, this supper lasts for at least 2 days supposing that there are many leftovers to continue eating for a while. Also, Thanksgiving shows relation to a potlatch because when you participate in Thanksgiving Dinner in another person's home, even if they are your family, it is typical to bring a dish such as a casserole or potato salad, as if to say, "Thank you for inviting me, I am willing to give back for the food I recieve."
The saying that envelopes this concept would probably be "pay it forward." In the story we read, "Too many bananas, not enough pineapple, and no watermelon at all," the author describes his problems with having way too many bananas. Finally, one day when he had to refuse a woman's offer of bananas, a man gave him insight to the fact that he was able to accept the bananas and, in turn, trade them to someone else for something he actually needed. This is kind of like paying it forward because he is accepting a gift that may not cost him much, if anything at all, and helping someone that needs that gift obtain it. In the end, it will most likely always be a win-win situation as he will be returned a gift of "higher value" (higher value meaning something of necessity).

Potlatches- Alexis Griffith

Potlatches are gatherings that serve as markers for significant events, such as birthdays, marriages, and comings of age. They serve as a way for hosts to display their social status and wealth by showering their guests with gifts and (for the more important guests) money.

Today we celebrate different forms of potlatches- christmas, thanksgiving, Easter, Bar Mitzvah's, weddings, and anniversaries. Though gifts are not always extravagant, usually there are some form of party favors provided to the guests as thanks for attending. Feasting is almost always associated with such events, and like in the traditional potlatch, food choice is often dominated by what is in season and how plentiful the supply is. We even participate in some of the competitive aspects of potlatching- at Christmas children race to find the hidden pickle on the tree, wherein whoever finds it receives a reward that the others do not. At Easter we hunt for eggs and at birthday parties we play games such as pin the tail on the donkey.

There are many aspects of potlatches that have manifested themselves into our social gatherings- and they make for a greate party!

potlatches

A potlatch is a feast amoung Native Americans in the northwest. They invite other groups and share in singing, dancing, eating, and usually gift giving. It is a way to show thier generosity. In my familiy we have a pitch-in for Christmas. I have a large family and we all bring a dish to the party. We also bring gifts for everyone. We enjoy each others company, eat, and give presents to one another. Depending on how much we "party" we may also sing and dance. It is our way to give thanks for one another and get to see our family. Our pitch-in is similar to a potlatch because we all share what we are given by bringing food and gifts.