Fungibility: Florida Seminole Casino Dividends and the Fiscal Politics of Indigeneity Robert Lai

Background 1979: Florida Seminoles open tribally operated high-stakes bingo hall 2006: total gaming revenues reach $1 billion Seminoles have used gaming revenues for:  Various projects  Tribal social services  Per capita gaming dividends

Purpose of the Cattelino’s Article Explore the fungibility of money through a case study of Seminole gaming-revenue distributions Examine how Seminoles selectively exploit the fungibility of money to break or make ties with one another and with non-Seminoles

Fungibility and Indigeneity Gambling is pure form of capitalism  Thus Indian gaming is symbol of modernity  Money makes everything fungible Money is responsible for impersonal human relations Thus, gaming revenues is seen as a threat to Seminole distinctiveness

How Fungibility of Money Break Ties Gaming revenue could be used to reinforce Native American cultural differences Dividends can individualize people  For example: Dividends are given to individuals instead of nuclear families or clans Marx: Money is “universal agent of divorce”  Separated things with similar qualities

How Fungibility of Money Break Ties Seminoles “break ties” w/ fungibility of money by:  Reducing restrictions on economic activity that would subject them to outside control Three ways by which this is possible:  Dividends give them flexibility within federal law  Dividends help establish distance from gambling  Dividends maximizes autonomy and noninterference

How Fungibility of Money Makes Ties Can equate and connect things that seem different Make things comparable and measurable Cash that is spent is same as other person’s When money is made, Seminoles seem less distinctive as a group

How Fungibility of Money Makes Ties Reinforces long standing leadership practices  Example of the Green Corn Dance  Leaders gain legitimacy by sharing resources Money conducive to Seminole political values  Easily divisible  Its use is not easily controlled

Community Boundaries and Fungibility Conflicts between fungibility of dividend money and social/biological issues  Disagreements on whether to pay minors  “Dividend babies”  Outsiders who pretend to be Seminole

Conclusion The fungibility of money is used by Seminoles to make and break ties The article is related to the class  Giving and exchanging of objects to build relationships

Reference Catellino, Jessica. (2009). Fungibility: Florida Seminole Casino Dividends and the Fiscal Politics of Indigeneity. American Anthropologist, 111(2),