USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Often, potlatches were held as a form of celebration or commemoration. For example, welcoming a new chief, a marriage, an initiation ceremony, or the funeral of a significant tribe member. The chief would give food, gifts, and other items to guests to show off the wealth within a clan or tribe.

Detailed explanation-2: -A Potlatch is characterized by a ceremony in which possessions are given away, or destroyed, to display wealth, generosity and enhance prestige. The term ‘Potlatch’ has been taken from a Nootka Indian word meaning “gift". The Nootka, are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of Canada.

Detailed explanation-3: -Historically, the potlatch functioned to redistribute wealth in what some refer to as a gift-giving ceremony. Valuable goods, such as firearms, blankets, clothing, carved cedar boxes, canoes, food and prestige items, such as slaves and coppers, were accumulated by high-ranking individuals over time, sometimes years.

Detailed explanation-4: -potlatch, ceremonial distribution of property and gifts to affirm or reaffirm social status, as uniquely institutionalized by the American Indians of the Northwest Pacific coast. The potlatch reached its most elaborate development among the southern Kwakiutl from 1849 to 1925.

Detailed explanation-5: -The main event of the potlatch, however, was the gift giving. The host presented gifts to each guest based on social rank. This means that more important people generally received larger gifts. People held potlatches for many different reasons.