At some point, overgrazing, overfishing, overharvesting, and overconsumption lead to shortages. My immediate thought ran to the theory of the “tragedy of the commons.” This tribe was very successful but nature cannot provide for human needs without limit. People start to panic, and demand answers from the tribal chief. The food in general seems to be running out. They try to fish other parts of the island with no results. The same day, fishermen return with empty nets. In the film, the people who are charged with harvesting coconuts discover a blight has ruined them. In other words, this is not communism but merely a social acknowledgement of the island’s abundance. When nature provides enough resources available to feed everyone, there is no functional need to develop private property as a technology in the sense we think of it today. Competent cultural anthropologists have documented many such cases in small tribes. They do have private dwellings, private in the sense that “this is his” and “that is hers.” But the main resources on the island are not given property titles. We are told that they hold everything in common.Īre we watching the unfolding of some Rousseauian myth of the state of nature? I don’t think so. They work as a community to harvest and provide for themselves. There are enough coconuts, fish, fruits, and resources for shelter for everyone. This tribe lives on a small island (probably now American Samoa) that seems to provide for all their needs. When nature provides enough resources available to feed everyone, there is no functional need to develop private property as a technology.Now, let’s talk about the economics of Moana. In other words, Moana gives us the right kind of multiculturalism: the opportunity to develop the capacity to empathize with people completely unlike ourselves but who face problems and difficulties no different than our own. We have mothers and fathers who seek to teach their children but the children have wills of their own and go their own way. We weave stories to account for random features of the world that defy explanation. Otherwise, I would have been completely lost.īut here is a tribute to certain universal features of humanity. I only recognized some of the symbols and mythology because of my visit to New Zealand and encounter with Māori symbolism. The attention to cultural authenticity in Moana is scrupulous to the point of being uncompromising, affecting even the voices of characters and the drawing of their faces and bodies. But its popularity surprises me somewhat: it deals with a time, world, tradition, and people completely unfamiliar to most American audiences, and is released in a time that is alleged to be all about nationalist reaction to multiculturalism.
#Economics coconuts capital island movie#
I’m delighted to find that moviegoers agree: Moana has been met with high acclaim and is set to become as profitable as any movie of its class. Moana gives us the right kind of multiculturalism.It also offers that special thing I look for in movies: a narrative that sets me off thinking about issues of political economy. Animation has never looked this great, and the story is gripping from beginning to end.
It is so stunningly beautiful, compelling, and moving.
Delirium is what I felt watching Moana, the 56th animated epic by Disney about a Polynesian tribe’s struggle to survive and the young girl (not a princess, she keeps saying) who leads them out of crisis.
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