Abstract
Potlatch culture can be regarded as the first examples of present-day conspicuous consumption. In Potlatch culture, conspicuous spending to gain social status and reputation has both material and moral objectives. Losing social reputation in Potlatch culture means losing the spirit. It also consists of elements such as potlatch culture giving, reciprocity and redistribution. Potlatch culture is also called a kind of gift economy. Social status and generosity have always been regarded as identical to one another in a potlatch culture whose root is the Native American ritualism. While the material and the spiritual are separated from each other in the modern life, the material and the spiritual are present in a single whole in the potlatch culture and all areas of social life are determined by an irrational logic that can be called as contemporary life. In this study, in the process from the most primitive ages to the global capitalist world of the present day, it is tried to explain the different forms of potlatch culture and the reflections of the conspicuous consumption.