The case of whale tooth money on the island of Fiji shows how
a commodity can become a symbol of wealth in a collectivist society in which
most trade in goods takes the form of gift exchanges, omitting the need for a
common standard of value. To the people of Fiji the polished ivory teeth of the
sperm whale commanded a ceremonial value and sacredness that put them beyond the
realm of a fixed value compared with other goods. The idea of pricing a wide
range of goods in terms of whale teeth would not have occurred to the
Fijians.
Captain James Cook first set forth the customs surrounding whale teeth in his
Journal describing his voyages through the Fijian and Tongan Islands in
1774. The Fijians called the whale teeth tambua, a word that connoted a
sacred sense of propriety, a positive sense of what was fitting, as well as a
negative sense of what was not fitting. The negative side is captured in the
modern meaning of the word taboo.
Whale teeth served as the principal store of wealth among the Fijians and
were considered precious articles to receive in gift or barter exchanges. No one
left unhappy who received a whale tooth in an exchange, making it a de facto
medium of exchange for large purchases. In the nineteenth century a single whale
tooth commanded sufficient value to barter for a large canoe. It could also
purchase a bride, or serve as blood money in compensation for a murdered person.
To a bride a whale tooth bore the same symbolic significance as an engagement
ring today. According to some reports the power of a whale tooth clenched any
accompanying request, whether it was for a specific gift, an alliance, or a
human life.
Whale teeth were constantly oiled and polished, and even in the later
nineteenth century were preferred to gold. After Fiji became a British Crown
Colony in 1874 a native Fiji official of the government asked to be paid in
whale teeth, rather than sterling silver or gold sovereigns, citing the added
sense of prestige and authority commanded by the sacred attributes of whale
teeth in the eyes of the Fijians. The ceremonial significance of the whale teeth
survived into recent times. The officials of Fiji made a formal presentation of
a whale tooth to the queen of England and the duke of Edinburgh when they
visited Fiji in 1982.
The native Fijians were not acquisitive in the modern sense. They traded
their surplus produce for particular things they wanted, and if they did not
have a particular thing in mind, they let their surplus produce rot. Gold and
silver coins held no charm for them when they were first introduced. Fijian
whale teeth reveal possible religious and ceremonial roots to the evolution of
money that precede the need for a convenient medium of exchange to finance
trade.
References:
Davies, Glyn. 1994. A History of Money.
Einzig, Paul. 1966. Primitive Money.
