A Global Potlatch: Identifying the Indigenous Influence on Western Thought.

The article discusses the influence of the Kwakwaka'wakw people of Vancouver Island, British Columbia on anthropologist Franz Boas's ideas about culture. It comments on the arrival of Boas in Kwak'wala land in 1886. The author considers the potlach, a form of indigenous government. The Kwakwaka'wakw principles of circulation, transformation, and unity are explored. Boas' relationship with George Hunt, an Indigenous intellectual and shaman, is considered. The more general issue of the influence of colonized people on colonizers and Western thought is also addressed.