The concept of Inalienable Possessions coined from Annette Weiner’s observation regarding the many objects of the Trobriand islanders who view those objects as culturally imbued with a spiritual sense of the gift giver (Wilk 2007). Thus, when they transfer in physical form from one individual to another the objects reserve meaningful bonds associated with that of the giver (Wilk 2007).

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  • The concept of Inalienable Possessions coined from Annette Weiner’s observation regarding the many objects of the Trobriand islanders who view those objects as culturally imbued with a spiritual sense of the gift giver (Wilk 2007). Thus, when they transfer in physical form from one individual to another the objects reserve meaningful bonds associated with that of the giver (Wilk 2007). It is important to understand that these gifts are not like those that we give in regular gift giving in the West on birthdays for example. Rather, these gifts can’t be sold for money or auctioned off of ebay because the value and the significance of the gift cannot be alienated or disengaged from the relationships of those who own that object (Wilk 2007). What makes a possession inalienable is its exclusive and cumulative identity with a particular series of owners through time. Its history is authenticated by fictive or true genealogies, origin myths, sacred ancestors, and gods. In this way, inalienable possessions are transcendent treasures to be guarded against all the exigencies that might force their loss (Weiner 1992). Barbara Mills put it another way by saying, “Inalienable possessions are objects made to be kept (not exchanged), have symbolic and economic power that cannot be transferred, and are often used to authenticate the ritual authority of corporate groups (Mills 2004). ” “Inalienable possessions provide a way of making kin out of non-kin (Weiner 1992). ” Marcel Mauss though, first described inalienable possessions in the classic anthropological text called The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies. See below excerpt: It is even incorrect to speak in these cases of transfer. They are loans rather than sales or true abandonment of possessions. Among the Kwakiutl a certain number of objects, although they appear at the potlatch, cannot be disposed of. In reality these pieces of "property" are sacra that a family divests itself of only with great reluctance and sometimes never (Mauss 2000). However, as Maurice Godelier points out in his book, The Enigma of the Gift, that Mauss is not concerned with the relations that men form while they end up producing things; he only concerns himself with the relations formed by the circulation of things that men produce (Godelier 1999).
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  • The concept of Inalienable Possessions coined from Annette Weiner’s observation regarding the many objects of the Trobriand islanders who view those objects as culturally imbued with a spiritual sense of the gift giver (Wilk 2007). Thus, when they transfer in physical form from one individual to another the objects reserve meaningful bonds associated with that of the giver (Wilk 2007).
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  • Inalienable Possessions
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