ポトラッチ（英語：potlatch）は、ハイダ族、ニューホーク族（Nuxalk）、トリンギット族、ツィムシャン族（Tsimshian）、ヌートカ族、クヮクヮカワク族、沿岸セイリッシュ族（Coast Salish）を含む、アメリカ合衆国およびカナダ・ブリティッシュコロンビア州の太平洋岸北西部海岸に沿って居住する先住民族によって行われる祭りの儀式である。儀式に先立っては、巨大な丸太を彫刻したトーテムポールが彫られ、これを部族員総出で立ち上げる行事が行われる。
この言葉は、チヌーク・ジャーゴンで「贈る」または「贈り物」を表す言葉に由来する。ポトラッチは太平洋岸北西部先住民族の重要な固有文化で、裕福な家族や部族の指導者が家に客を迎えて舞踊や歌唱が付随した祝宴でもてなし、富を再分配するのが目的とされる。ポトラッチは子供の誕生や命名式、成人の儀式、結婚式、葬式、死者の追悼などの機会に催された。太平洋岸北西部先住民族の社会では、一族の地位は所有する財産の規模ではなく、ポトラッチで贈与される財産の規模によって高まった。

A potlatch is a gift-giving feast practiced by indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of Canada and the United States,[1] among whom it is traditionally the primary governmental institution, legislative body, and economic system.[2] This includes the Heiltsuk, Haida, Nuxalk, Tlingit, Makah, Tsimshian,[3] Nuu-chah-nulth,[4] Kwakwaka'wakw,[2] and Coast Salish cultures.[5] Potlatches are also a common feature of the peoples of the Interior and of the Subarctic adjoining the Northwest Coast, although mostly without the elaborate ritual and gift-giving economy of the coastal peoples (see Athabaskan potlatch).
A potlatch involves giving away or destroying wealth or valuable items in order to demonstrate a leader's wealth and power. Potlatches are also focused on the reaffirmation of family, clan, and international connections, and the human connection with the supernatural world. Legal proceedings may include namings, business negotiations and transactions, marriages, divorces, deaths, end of mourning, transfers of physical and especially intellectual property, adoptions, initiations, treaty proceedings, monument commemorations, and honouring of the ancestors. Potlatch also serves as a strict resource management regime, where coastal peoples discuss, negotiate, and affirm rights to and uses of specific territories and resources.[6] [7] [8] Potlatches often involve music, dancing, singing, storytelling, speeching, and often joking and games. The honouring of the supernatural and the recitation of oral histories are a central part of many potlatches.

引用元：Wikipedia