Parties And Politics

7 Pages 1713 Words

You enter the area where the festivity is to take place – everything has been decorated flawlessly and each person is dressed in extravagant costume. The feast and gifts are on careful display - the design is to impress, but not offend (overtly in any event). The host greets you in a cordial manner and guides you to your appropriate place for the ceremony. This scene is acted out over and over again throughout the world, different ceremonies with the same purpose – to impress and intimidate. The same can be said of the Moka and Christmas; while they may be vastly different in appearance, timing and tradition the Moka celebration of the Kawelka and Christmas among the Nacirema nonetheless serve many of the same social-political purposes. Whether or not the population is willing to admit the actual purposes for the celebration, it is clear that a form of personal politics is waged at nearly all social gatherings. The Moka and Christmas included.
The Kawelka are very forthright about the fact that the Moka is a political event with specific aims of raising status, intimidating enemies, and securing allies. Preparing a Moka is an arduous and time-consuming task that is not undertaken lightly and then only by the “big-men” of the tribe. Preparations for the Moka often begin years ahead of the actual celebration and the planning phase has its own round of gifts and political maneuvering. The actual Moka, however, is where the true political action takes place and it begins with the invitations. Who is invited is virtually the most important factor of the gala for the simple fact that it affects the level of potential violence during the festivities, and thus the entire atmosphere of the Moka. If an enemy is invited is order to make peace, they may decide to use the event as an ambush or use magic to cause the event to fall apart. This would cause the tribe throwing the Moka to lose face/status. Status is after-all, the main object...