How the Potlatch Contributed to Fisheries Management

Abstract

"With population levels and technology that could have led them to overfish their salmon resource, most northwest coast tribes succeeded in generating a surplus from their fishery. A 'potlatch' or 'give-away' system creates incentives to manage a common property resource at socially optimum levels of harvest effort. The particular institutions of the Kwakiutl are examined in this paper to explore the possibility that their potlatch tradition helped prevent overharvest of their common pool resources. Kwakiutl world view and their system of winter ceremonials are consistent with this interpretation, as is the growth of the size of individual potlatches in the nineteenth century and the decline of the potlatch as Kwakiutl lost control of their fishery in the twentieth century. Because of the success of northwest coast tribes, an institution which requires users of a common pool resource to divide their surplus among each other should be considered in addressing common pool problems."