Special Purpose Money Essay

In today’s capitalist society money holds an important place in the web of meaning of society. Money is a homogenizing factor that unites a culture and unifies them as one (Sahlins, 1976). There are many forms of money, it comes in all shapes and forms but as society becomes more global money has undergone an evolution. Money has evolved from special purpose to a more general-purpose form, which can be traded across boarders and for a variety of goods and services at an established value. Special purpose money as a result has began to disappear as the use of general-purpose money becomes more necessary to obtain goods from the developing global market, in specific reference to the increasing popularity of the capitalist market. But a hybridized form of special money …show more content…
Special purpose money is only used for specific trades between two parties (Rawlings, 2015). This type of money usually only exists inside a specific culture and can act as an identifying marker for status, power and wealth; it also however can hold religious or superstitious meaning as well. The culture in which special purpose monies exist dictates what the value of the objects are and adhere those values strictly. With the introduction of the capital market there has been a disappearance of special purpose monies in the traditional sense. A prime example that illustrates special purpose monies and their disappearing meaning within society is the trading of Tevau. The Tevau trade is used for bride payments, ending in the 1980s it originated from Melanesia in the Santa Cruz Islands and Solomon Islands where it circulated. Rooted in deep cultural and spiritual meaning the Tevau were coiled what appeared to be belts made out of feathers and other natural materials and takes a lot of man-hours to create by a hereditary specialist who were believed to have inherited their powers from the gods (Bonshek, 2009) (Britishmuseum.org,