Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Potlatch (was: Napster / Elvis)

Author:Alexander Cohen
Posted:7/5/2000; 11:44:31 AM
Topic:Napster / Elvis
Msg #:18335 (In response to 18267)
Prev/Next:18334 / 18336

I presume you have read Marcel Mauss's book "The Gift" on the Potlatch? others try http://www.spacegroove.com/efotiou/mauss.html for a halfway synopsis and amazon at:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393306984/

I agree that Potlatch is a probably fairly close analogy to Napster/Gnutella. The difference is that in this age of Digital Reproduction (see Benjamin: "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction")the exchange value is zero (of a kind since the cost of replication is all but zero), but the use value remains relatively high.

In the traditional Potlatch, the exchange value had some relevance in that the material exchanged embodied work or some cost to the person giving the potlatch. On the other hand, with regard to social status, I'm sure Napster users have a perceived place in the hierarchy in accordance with how much they have horded, which serves as a placeholder for what they might give away.

There are also many packrats using Napster, who collect for the sake of collecting. But collecting has no particular value since Napster allows one to get anything from anywhere, you'd think instead that people would obtain higher social status from having made obscure music available! hmmm....

--Alexander Cohen UC Berkeley, Film Studies

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