著者

深田 淳太郎

出版者

日本文化人類学会

雑誌

文化人類学 (ISSN:13490648)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.71, no.3, pp.391-404, 2006-12-31

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The Tolai people in the province of East New Britain, Papua New Guinea, have long used a form of shell money called tabu. They use that indigenous currency for various purposes: as "bride price," as a valuable shown and distributed in rituals, and as a medium of commercial exchange. These days, the provincial government is planning to recognize the tabu as the second legal tender in the province alongside the kina, which is the legal tender for all of Papua New Guinea. In this article, I will consider how these two currencies coexist and relate to each other, especially as media of exchange. Analyzing several practical cases of transactions, I will show that the relation between the two currencies falls into three patterns, as follows: (1) The two currencies are used for discrete transactions that differ in terms of the goods exchanged, as well as the situation, and so on. For example, only the tabu can be used as payment for initiation ceremonies into a secret society, and only the kina can be used in stores in town. They form different spheres of exchange that are exclusive to each other and have their own intrinsic value. (2) Either of the two currencies may be used for transactions that deal with the same goods in the same situation. In such transaction, both the tabu and the kina form a common standard of value via a fixed exchange rate. For example, in small village stores, various goods are valued under this single standard and are sold in both currencies. And these days, one can pay taxes, court fines and other fees at the government office using either of the currencies. (3) Besides pattern (2), this pattern involves the use of both currencies for the same kind of transactions, without necessarily maintaining a common value standard between the two. The use of both currencies takes place in an incoherent fashion for the exchange of exactly the same goods in the same situation. Transactions of this kind are typically seen by small vendors who deal in snacks and small goods used after a funeral. Patterns (1) and (2) can be understood as a single model, in which the tabu and kina keep their own separate spheres of exchange while maintaining an overlapping common area in each of their peripheries. In that common area, the two currencies are used together for various transactions under a fixed standard of value. But, at the same time, transactions according to those patterns keep the clear distinction between the two spheres of exchange. Meanwhile, this single model does not include the other pattern, pattern (3), in which the tabu and kina are used for similar transactions without having a common standard of value. That means that the two currencies can coexist and be used together, albeit incoherently, without adjusting the value through an exchange rate. As described above, the model that integrates patterns (1) and (2) is not consistent with pattern (3). But that is never an either-or situation. The relation between the tabu and kina in Tolai society is what allows these three inconsistent patterns to exist simultaneously.