Markets in Melanesia? A Comparison of Traditional Economic Transactions in New Guinea with African Markets

In contrast to the partnership trade, nonpartnership economic transactions in traditional Melanesia have not been the object of careful analysis. Comparison of these transactions with African markets reveals that Melanesia lacked the essential political condition necessary not only for the origin and existence of market places in Africa but also for the operation of the market principle. Therefore, not only are true market places absent, but also nonpartnership transactions in Melanesia are more fruitfully considered as impersonal reciprocal transactions rather than marketlike exchanges based on a peripheral market principle. Consideration of the transactions in their total social (economic and political) context allows the identification of a principle in nonpartnership trade comparable to the principle of generosity that has been used to analyze rates of exchange in partnership trade.