From Donation to Sharing, Experimental Study in Kanak Society

Authors: Jean-Pierre PROU*

DOI: 10.23880/pprij-16000295

Volume 6, Issue 4

Abstract

We have chosen to conduct an experimental study on exchange and giving in Kanak country because social norms there are different from those in the West and Asia. Within this several-thousand-year-old holistic culture, social cohesion and the exchange of goods prevail within the framework of custom. Because of the French presence in New Caledonia for over one hundred and sixty years, the Kanak communities continue to live either in reserves on customary land or in urban areas in Noumea and in the communes of Grande Terre, sometimes even alternating between the tribe and the city. Kanak society has is unique in that it lives in two worlds: Western and tribal. With one foot in the Western world and the other in tradition, it is capable of making to make decisions by operationalizing the appropriate social norms according to the context.

Keywords: Society; Donation; Cohesion; Appropriate; Communities

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