Tests anthropology's traditional assumptions about kinship, economics, power, and gender. Focusing on Oceania societies from Polynesia to Papua New Guinea and including Australian Aborigine groups, this title investigates the category of possessions that must not be given or, if they are circulated, must return finally to the giver.
This study of women, men, and exchanges of wealth in the Trobriand Islands, Papua New Guinea, makes an interesting comparison with the work of pioneer ethnographer Bronislaw Malinowski, who conducted his seminal research there between 1915 and 1918. While Malinowski and others have focused on men, dismissing "women's work" as unimportant, Weiner shows that women play a vital role in Trobriand society.