ABSTRACT
The association of a semi-commercial transaction with definite public ceremonies supplies another binding force of fulfilment through a special psychological mechanism: the desire for display, the ambition to appear munificent, the extreme esteem for wealth and for the accumulation of food. The Trobriander keeps his food in houses better made and more highly ornamented than his dwelling huts. The public and ceremonial manner in which the transactions are usually carried out, combined with the great ambition and vanity of the Melanesian adds also to the safe-guarding forces of law. It scarcely needs to be added that there are other driving motives, besides the constraint of reciprocal obligations, which keep the fishermen to their task. The bundles of fish, the measures of yams, or bunches of taro, can only be roughly assessed, and naturally the quantities exchanged vary according to whether the fishing season or the harvest is more abundant.
