Concept Of Oloa

Big round eyes devoid of life stare directly at me. The body lays stiff, unanimated by the pounds of stuffing and the absence of senses. It’s brown fur rubs across my hand as I hold it’s existence. With paws facing forward and the tail posterior to the body, my dog plush was displaying it’s anatomical position. A gift given from my grandmother, my plush’s defining feature was it’s oversized black muzzle and the minute tongue that permeated through. Gifts are meant to hold sentimental value, which is part of the reason why gifts are exchanged today. Yet, is there anything else that makes gifts more intriguing to what we see today? Marcel Mauss, a French sociologist , published The Gift in which he studied Polynesian culture and the intricate …show more content…
These are essentially movable goods” (Mauss pg.9). Furthermore, oloa are seen as masculine goods due to the goods being passed down from the father 's side. To further understand the concept of oloa, my dog plush serves as an example. In essence, my plush is definitely an object, but it’s existence far surpasses the scope for being just an object. No, my plush is also a tool which allows me to summon excitement. Like any child, we use “toys” to bring about a sense of fantasy through the activities we engage in. These “tools” allow us to do so because the very purpose of a plush is to be played with. Additionally, it is movable which allows me to travel anywhere I please. For something as small as a gift, one could never view a small plush as an oloa. Especially in today’s day and age. However, many of the gifts we receive today are an oloa. For example, a new bike or a new car. These gifts are meant to be used and hold no other deeper meaning than to please …show more content…
Mauss studied items that were viewed tonga and found that they are fixed property. Fixed, in a sense, that it is immovable. My plush has yet to part ways with me. So, I believe that by holding onto it, I am demonstrating the qualities of a tonga. Not to mention that my gift displays the relationship between me and my grandmother. oloa are objects that are mainly tools but tonga hold a value above that. It is easy to give a gift like an oloa to others because it’s not worth that much. However, I cannot trade my gift to just anyone because it 's basically irreplaceable. In Polynesian culture, tonga are strongly linked to a person’s clan and cannot be easily replaced. Just like the relationship I have with my grandmother, our relationship can never be replaced by simply receiving a gift. Moreover, I am maintaining my grandmother’s mana by not letting her gift go to waste. Mana is the source of all authority or power in Polynesian culture. Although, authority or power is not how I envision it, I would suspect that my authority is with the gift. It is in my possession and what I do with it is solely my