5 - Moka transactions and media of exchange

Summary

DEFINITIONS

Hageners use the term moka in two ways: first, as a general word for the whole complex of their ceremonial exchange system apart from bridewealth (and a few other types of payment which I list below); and second, more specifically to refer to all ceremonial gifts in which one partner makes a prestation which is greater in value than the simple debt which he owes. It is strictly this increment in excess of debt which is the moka element in the gift and which brings prestige to the giver.

In addition, there are some categories of payment which can, if the parties so wish, be used as a vehicle for making moka. For example, at bridewealth occasions there are exchanges of pigs, shells, and Australian money between the groom's and the bride's kin. Within these, there is always a distinction made between gifts which are for bridewealth proper (kuimø) and those which are designed to initiate moka partnerships between the affines. The same holds for growth-payments made on behalf of a child to its matrilateral kin when it is newly weaned, and when its hair is first cut. A big-man may decide to make these payments a departure-point for moka gifts. Gifts to maternal kin continue when a person grows up, and a man takes them on himself, continuing his father's earlier payment on his behalf. Such gifts are called mam-nga pukl kaklp ngond, ‘I straighten my mother's root and give’, i.e. ‘I straighten my relationship with my mother's people’.