Societies where the wealthy would burn their belongings

January 20, 2018 6:32 AM

I seem to have read somewhere about a historical culture (other than silicon valley) where the wealthy would get together at parties and burn their belongings to show how powerful they were. Can you help me find historical examples of this sort of ostentation?

I don't think that the practice of burning Joss Paper, or Ghost Money, is what I'm looking for, although it is pretty interesting.

posted by craniac to Religion & Philosophy (12 answers total)

You're thinking of the potlatch of the indigenous nations of the PNW.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 6:42 AM on January 20, 2018 [8 favorites]

Viking burials were similar in term of the property of the chief being consumed by the ritual.
posted by Diablevert at 6:59 AM on January 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

I do think you are thinking of the potlatch, though what is going on with the potlatch is a bit complicated, as goods and such were distributed, not destroyed. Here is some information. A bit more.
posted by gudrun at 7:03 AM on January 20, 2018 [5 favorites]

You might be mixing in a bit of bonfires of the vanities? Was not to show how powerful they were, but how virtuous.
posted by fingersandtoes at 7:22 AM on January 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

There's this anecdote from Renaissance Rome: In its early days (constructed from approximately 1506 to 1511, with various fresco cycles completed later), the villa hosted many of Chigi's ostentatious, Gatsby-esque banquets. At one of these events, Chigi and his group of close, well-educated friends horrified his guests by instructing his servants to throw his guests' soiled silver and gold plates into the Tiber River -- but the dishes were not wasted, for Chigi had planted a net along the banks in preparation for this trick.
posted by lazuli at 7:43 AM on January 20, 2018 [4 favorites]

I can't recall exactly where I read this, but I saw some commentary on the Canto of Inferno where the Hoarders and Wasters are found, which said that "Wasters" referred to an actual kind of fad among some wealthy youth in 14th Century Italy, in which they competed to destroy their fortunes in the most decadent and lurid ways they could imagine.
posted by thelonius at 8:35 AM on January 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

...There's that one Rockefeller dinner party (at the Breakers? Marble House?) Where they had a sterling silver trough full of sand as the centerpiece and silver buckets and shovels at each place. Over dessert, they all went digging for gems and jewelry.
posted by sexyrobot at 10:08 AM on January 20, 2018 [3 favorites]

Oh, and in 1994, the band KLF burned a million pounds in a disused boathouse in Scotland..."because it was fun."
posted by sexyrobot at 10:13 AM on January 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

"Letting go" as a means of enrichment is not an obscure practice of one obscure culture. It's behind myriad silly-seeming practices (e.g. "The Secret") as well as dangerous/manipulative ones (e.g. prosperity theology).

Meditation is a practice of letting go, and practitioners often report transformational results; they let go to get something. Similarly, Christianity is full of references to emptying one's cup so it can be filled by god.

This meme is baked in to most every culture and theology. So in answer to your question, you'll find it everywhere, if you study closely. Though not always specifically done via burning (but I imagine that's not the part you're primarily concentrating on).
posted by Quisp Lover at 2:51 PM on January 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

The upper class sneered at (but were fearful of) the newly rich and highly politicised miners from the C19th Australian goldfields. When in town, the miners would supposedly, ostentatiously, eat sandwiches made out of their recently-earned pound notes (washed down with hugely expensive imported champagne).
posted by brushtailedphascogale at 5:49 PM on January 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

These are wonderful answers that have transformed the way I view Burning Man and elements of startup culture, among other things. Thank you for your erudition.
posted by mecran01 at 7:33 PM on January 20, 2018

Response by poster: It occurred to me that Marie Kondo's The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up is a form of this as well.
posted by craniac at 1:55 PM on January 31, 2018 [1 favorite]