Tabu is a form of shell money used by the Tolai people of the Gazelle Peninsula on New Britain island in Papua New Guinea, made from small nassa shells threaded in long lengths onto lengths of cane and traditionally measured by fathom-like units of arm span. Beyond serving as a practical medium of exchange for everyday goods, tabu carries deep ceremonial significance and is required in large quantities for bride price payments, funerary compensation, and other major life-cycle and social obligations, its accumulation and display serving as a central marker of a person's wealth and standing within Tolai society. Tabu remains in active use alongside Papua New Guinea's national currency today, one of the best-documented and longest-surviving traditional currencies still functioning as genuine money in daily and ceremonial economic life, and it is frequently cited in economic anthropology as a case study of a durable, non-state currency operating in parallel with a modern cash economy.
Facts
Typical RegionSourced to the subject's own accountGazelle Peninsula and wider East New Britain province on the island of New Britain, Papua New Guinea, home to the Tolai people. 1 Documented YearSourced to the subject's own accountEarliest specific dated reference found is the German colonial government's 1902 ban on trading tabu with Europeans, which presupposes tabu was already well known to colonial administrators by then; the currency itself is understood to predate this. Connections
Associated With
Tabu, the shell-string currency of the Tolai people of New Britain, functioned as a recognized medium of exchange and store of value, a documented form of money.
Sources
1. MoneyMuseum: Tabu
MoneyMuseumColonial history, 1902 ban
In 1902, Tabu was banned from trading with Europeans by the German colonial government 'to make the natives feel that if they wanted to buy something from Europeans, they first had to earn money by working properly.'
Overview, Tolai population today
Today, about 100,000 people who call themselves Tolai still live on the island of New Britain, which is now part of Papua New Guinea.
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