A custom known as the kula exchange or kula ring where great risks are taken to exchange gifts is prevalent in what part of the world?
Kula ring Kula ring Kula, also known as the Kula exchange or Kularing, is a ceremonial exchange system conducted in the Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea. The Kula ring was made famous by the father of modern anthropology, Bronisław Malinowski, who used this test case to argue for the universality of rational decision making (even among 'natives'), and for the cultural nature of the object of their effort. Malinowski's path-breaking work, "Argonauts of the Western Pacific" (1922), directly confronted the question, "why would men risk life and limb to travel across huge expanses of dangerous ocean to give away what
Kula ring ("gimwali"). Both reflect different underlying value systems and cultural customs. The Kula, Mauss wrote, is not supposed to be conducted like "gimwali". The former involves a solemn exchange ceremony, a "display of greatness" where the concepts of honour and nobility are central; the latter, in contrast, often done as part of Kula exchange journeys, involves hard bargaining and purely serves economic purposes. Kula valuables are inalienable in the sense that they (or an equivalent object) have to be returned to the original owner. Those who receive them can pass them on as gifts, but they cannot be sold as commodities