ABSTRACT
Humans clearly exchange goods and services time and time again. The more distantly the parties to an exchange are related, the more likely they are to expect the trade to be mutually rewarding—and the more closely they watch each other for signs of cheating on the deal. Robert Trivers suggests that the subtleties of exchange are among the principal pressures leading to the evolution of the large human brain. Humans also accept intangibles like prestige in exchange for real goods and services. Prestige and political loyalty were the stakes in the twentieth-century international giving war; and it is not the first time that this typically human competition has shifted into an inflationary spiral. The Kwakiutl Indians of Vancouver Island developed the potlatch until it became an extravaganza of gift-giving, ostentatious display, and waste. Potlatch is an Indian name given to days of feasting and entertainment. High chiefs competed with each other by potlatching each other's community.
