[web-heads] Gadget rage

[Steve Lamont <spl@ncmir.ucsd.edu>]

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6803

  [. . .]

  The "kula" exchange of the Trobriand Islands was first documented in
  1922 by Bronislaw Malinowski, a pioneer of social anthropology. One
  of kula's key features is an apparent element of altruism that is
  missing from a simple, two-way exchange of gifts. Because the chain
  of gift-giving passes from island to island in a circle, no
  community receives a present from the one it gives to.

  [. . .]

We have a similar tradition in Western society but it involves
fruitcake at Christmas.

							spl

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