Heather Ames

ANTH 1010
Dr. Smith
3, May 2015

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E-Portfolio Project
I will start by defining the noun debt, a sum of money owed, the state of owing money, a
feeling of gratitude for a favor or service. I want to summarize chapter six titled Games with Sex
and Death. And what they consider as debts. He starts by explaining a little how business has
been conducted, and how business deals can be seen differently than the way actual business is
conducted. He brings up a story about Neil Bush (George W.s brother) that during his marriage
to his wife had multiple affairs. In the divorce proceedings he claimed the women would just
show up at his hotel door after business meetings in Thailand and Hong-Kong. When asked if
were prostitutes he replied I dont know. Before that they remarked it was quite curious that a
man could walk up to a hotel-room door, open it and there is a woman standing there and he
would have sex with her. He replied to that it is very unusual. He admitted that this has
happened to him various times. This chapter focuses on the use of money and what can come of
it if there is no money. If you have no money you come to the point where there is some sort of
debt you have to pay back in some way.

Throughout the chapter we learn about a theory of the origin of money that was stated by
a French economist-turned-anthropologist named Philippe Rospabe. His theory is that primitive
money was not originally a way to pay debts of any sort. Its a way of recognizing the existence
of debts that cannot possibly be paid. (pg. 131) Money was first used most commonly to arrange
marriages. The way this was done was called a bride-price, a suitors family delivers whatever

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currency is used in the economy to the woman's family and that family would give their daughter
to the suitor to be his bride. This started a big controversy in 1926 with the League of Nations
because they saw it as a form of slavery. Anthropologists disagreed claiming if you are buying
your wife you would be able to sell her. Men and women would both have the same amount
responsibilities to each other. The payment is really just saying that he has the right to call the
offspring she has his.

This chapter also talks about groups of people and their practices of marriage and
payments. It starts with the Tiv of Central Nigeria. Their marriage was believed that it should be
the exchange of sisters. For example A man gives his sister in marriage to another, that man then
marries the sister of his new brother-in-law. They claim this is the perfect marriage because all
you need to exchange is one sister for another. This always doesn't work out that well. The
example stated in the book states that I could marry your sister but for some reason you do not
want to marry mine because you do not like her or she is too young, you proceed to become her
guardian in which you claim the right to give her to someone else to marry. Parallel to if there
is someone elses sister that you would like to marry instead you can trade her to that family so
you can marry that sister from that family. Also if you do not have a sister you would be able to
buy a slave and trade her.

Lele is an African tribe and they do most of their dealings in blood debts. They would use
raffia-palm cloths as a form of trading. There was no such thing as bride wealth in the Lele
tribes. Since the main reason for bride wealth is so you can claim your wives offspring as your
own. This does not matter to this tribe because the were matrilineal. This means children belong

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to the mothers line and not the fathers. A blood debt is the form of a something bad happening to
you, it would not be your own doing it is said to be someone else doing something to you. So
once they found the culprit they would then owe a blood debt. They then owe the victim a young
women from their family. This could either be a sister or a daughter. She would then go and
become the victims pawn. Men wanted to collect pawns so if they did happen to be the culprit
of a blood debt they could give a pawn instead of their own sister or daughter. In these tribes
there are also women that are called village-wife. This is a young woman that has become a
pawn of a older man that has he acquired through a blood debt. He wants to marry her, but she
does not want to be his third or fourth wife. So she sneaks of in the night to an enemies tribe and
asks for protection. They agree, she is then under the protection of all the men in that tribe. (pg.
141)

Chapter six is so focused on marriage rituals a term I want to discuss from the
encyclopedia is marriage. Marriage is defined as the legally or formally recognized union of a
man and a woman (or in sine jurisdictions, two people of the same sex) as partners in a
relationship. There are many different ways marriage can come about. There is arranged
marriages where your parents essentially pick your spouse for you, bride wealth a possible suitor
gives the brides family money to buy her. In some places to demonstrate power as an elder to
show maturity you should complete the duty such as marriage or be in the military.

Rites of Passage is defined as a ceremony or event marking an important stage in

someones life. This of course goes hand in hand with marriage. People think of marriage as a
rite of passage that you complete in your life. Age goes along with this also, once you are a

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certain age that age says you are ready to do. For example now by 16 years old you can start
driving by yourself. By 18 years old you are officially an adult and can legally get married if you
so wish. By 21 in American you can legally drink. Rites of passage are different everywhere. In
other countries the legal drinking age is 18 instead of 21. Countries have a way of choosing what
the age for some of the rites of passage could be.

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Citation:
Graeber, David. Debt: The First 5,000 Years. Brooklyn, N.Y.: Melville House, 2011. Print.

Barnard, Alan. Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology. London: Routledge, 1998.
Print.