ABSTRACT
Consideration of the fishermen’s prisoners’ dilemma in Chapter 4 revealed that the use of generosity or pooling of a catch has only recently been viewed as a credible solution. The chapter showed how the solution would work if the conditions surrounding the fishery would allow it to function. This chapter describes how the system of the Northwest Coast provided a way to make the solution occur. The solution is very simple: if a fisherman, in the form of a titleholder to a house, failed to share the wealth of his house, other titleholders would cease recognizing his authority. In short, in order to remain a fisherman, the fisherman had to share his catch. If he did not, then he lost his right to be a fisherman. Being a titleholder obliged a person also to share the wealth of the land he or she controlled; an economist could say ‘side payments were required.’
