Online Lecture (via Zoom) delivered during DLSU Manila's Behavioral Sciences Society's Lecture Series on COVID-19 in the Philippines / 04 Sept 2020

1. PLANTLINERS:
An Anthropological Look at
Online Plant Barter during
the COVID-19 Pandemic
Jessie Varquez, Jr. ￨ jessie.varquez@dlsu.edu.ph
Behavioral Sciences Society's Lecture Series on
COVID-19 in the Philippines
04 Sept 2020 ￨ @dlsu.bss
Image Source: SunStar Davao

3. What are the Most Commonly
Bartered Items by Filipinos?
Food Items and Groceries
Baby Care Products
Bicycles and Parts
Plants and Gardening
According to a published study by Journal of
Physiological Anthropology, plants can reduce
physical and psychological stress. Even NASA has
done extensive research on how plants can reduce
up to 87% of toxins in the home in their most cited
research in the plant community. With the kind of
stress that most of us are under, there’s no denying
that we turn to nature for some healing.

4. FLOW of talk
Barter in anthropological
understanding
Describing 'Plantliners'
during a 'Plantdemic'
Themes and Engagements in
Online Plant Barter
Human-Plant relations

5. Prefatory notes
Data presented in this talk were all gathered online, a virtual
version of "participant observation"
Information that may lead to users' identities are concealed
There are many barter communities on Facebook. For the
purposes of this talk, only one public FB group dedicated to
Online Plant Barter (OPB) was examined.

6. Private FB Groups

7. Barter in anthropological
understanding
ANTHROPOLOGY'S INTEREST IN BARTER
BARTER AS A MODE OF EXCHANGE
THE BARTER MYTH

8. Karl Polanyi's typology and
distinction between reciprocity,
redistribution, and exchange.
Anthropology's interest in Barter
"BRINGING IN A SOULAVA. The party, the second man blowing the conch shell
and the leader carrying the necklace on a stick, approach the chief’s house."
Image source: Malinowski, B. (1922). Argonauts of the Western Pacific: An Account of Native Enterprise and
Adventure in the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Quinea. Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd.
Economy = production,
distribution, consumption
Marshall Sahlin's three types of
reciprocity: generalized,
balanced, and negative.

9. Focus on demand on particular things which are
different in kind
Protagonists are essentially free and equal, either can
pull out of the deal and at the end of it they are quits
There is no criterion by which, from the outside, it can
be judged that the one item is equal in value to the
other item
The act is transformative; it moves objects between
the 'regimes of value' (Appadurai, 1986) sustained by
the two actors
1.
2.
3.
4.
Barter as a mode of exchange

10. “the existence of a realm where there are objects of
desire, that is, objects one has not got and for which
one is prepared to sacrifice what one has”
“Barter occurs in the absence of money and where
there is no over-arching monetary system, but also
where a common currency exists but where people
prefer not to use it, or where there is not enough
money to go round. Barter may even serve as a
solution to the problems of money.”

11. Key elements of Barter
social embeddedness
"Barter... is one kind of exchange which creates social relations in its own mode."
Humphrey, C., & Hugh-Jones, S. (1992). Introduction: Barter, exchange and value.
In C. Humphrey & S. Hugh-Jones (Eds.), Barter, exchange and value: an anthropological approach (pp. 1–20). Cambridge University Press.
cultural context
"...the 'cultural' activity of exchange determines their value"
Strathern, M. (1992). Qualified value: the perspective of gift exchange.
In C. Humphrey & S. Hugh-Jones (Eds.), Barter, exchange and value. An anthropological approach (pp. 169–191). Cambridge University Press..

12. Previous research on barter:
Sago for Rice in Agusan

13. Previous research on barter:
Marine Catch for
Agricultural Produce in Tawi-Tawi

15. Describing 'Plantliners'
during a 'Plantdemic'
A DEDICATED FB GROUP FOR OPB
RULES AND VALUES
GOV'T REGULATION ISSUES

16. 19,247 members
8 admins & 3 moderators

18. "Group Rules from Admin"

22. Gov't Regulation Issues

24. Themes and Engagements in
Online Plant Barter
THEMES FROM 200 POSTS
SOCIO-MORAL ENGAGEMENTS

25. Plant ID
45%
Barter
36%
Flex/Share
14%
Plant Care
5%
Themes from 200 posts

26. Theme: Plant Care

27. Theme: Flex/Share

28. Theme: Plant ID

29. Theme: Barter

30. Knowledge and
Practices-sharing

31. Socio-moral engagements

32. Socio-moral engagements

33. Socio-moral engagements

34. Human-Plant Relations
WHAT WE DO
BARTER DURING A PANDEMIC
PLANTS AS KIN

35. Is OPB more than social and
economic transactions?
What multispecies relations take
place after OPB?
Are there ontological dimensions in
the OPB human-plant relations?
PLANTITO｜PLANTITA
PLANTDAD ｜PLANTMOM
HALAMOMS ｜PLAUNTS
Plants as Kin

36. B
a
r
t
e
r
i
n
g
d
u
r
i
n
g
a
p
a
n
d
e
m
i
c
A HYPERACTIVE FB COMMUNITY WITH RULES
However, the social media platform coupled with thousands of members
(dis)able the 'enforcement' of the rules.
PLANTLINERS IN A PLANTDEMIC
OPB is a peculiar form of barter (at least in anthropological literature)
because it is mediated in a social media platform and informed by the
socio-politico-moral discourse of a global pandemic.
MORE THAN A BARTER COMMUNITY
The FB group operates as sharing platform of knowledge and practices,
affirming beliefs and practices (even opinions) that maybe challenged by
other knowledge systems (e.g., scientific).
SOCIAL EMBEDDEDNESS OF BARTER
The practices of OPB resonate with the comparative study of barter in
anthropological literature - i.e., it is embedded in social relations and
cultural contexts.

37. References
Appadurai, A. (1986). Introduction: commodities and the politics of value. In A. Appadurai (Ed.), The Social
Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective (pp. 3–63). Cambridge University Press.
Humphrey, C., & Hugh-Jones, S. (1992). Introduction: Barter, exchange and value. In C. Humphrey & S. Hugh-
Jones (Eds.), Barter, exchange and value: an anthropological approach (pp. 1–20). Cambridge University
Press.
Malinowski, B. (1922). Argonauts of the Western Pacific: An account of native enterprise and adventure in
the archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea. Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd.
Strathern, M. (1992). Qualified value: the perspective of gift exchange. In C. Humphrey & S.
Hugh-Jones (Eds.), Barter, exchange and value. An anthropological approach
(pp. 169–191). Cambridge University Press.
Strauss, I.E. (2016). The Myth of the Barter Economy. The Atlantic.
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/02/barter-society-myth/471051/

38. Maraming salamat!

39. PLANTLINERS:
An Anthropological Look at
Online Plant Barter during
the COVID-19 Pandemic
Jessie Varquez, Jr. ￨ jessie.varquez@dlsu.edu.ph
Behavioral Sciences Society's Lecture Series on
COVID-19 in the Philippines
04 Sept 2020 ￨ @dlsu.bss
Image Source: SunStar Davao