They Spear, Hit Again, Bite, Get Engaged and Sometimes Marry: Revisiting the Gendering of Kula Shells

Abstract

This article revisits the ethnography of kula exchange
and proposes a fresh perspective on gender as a strategy of kula
talk. The shell ornaments that are used in kula have often been
classified as "male" and "female." Here, I argue that these are
not inherent qualities of kula valuables but flexible tropes of
kula talk. The wider context of kula exchange rhetoric and gen
der demonstrates that male and female invoke the imagination
of sexual relations, of pleasure, intimacy and consent. Gender
symbolism, in kula, is a rhetorical strategy to lubricate the sense
of trust between kula exchange partners.