How Stoned Can You Be
A fascinating example on the feeling of ownership is seen on Yap, a small island in the Caroline Islands of the Western Pacific Ocean. Besides sounding cheerful and carefree, the “Yapese” are known for using a currency called Rai.102
Rai functions like most currencies, except they are often large, circular stone disks carved out of limestone from aragonite and calcite crystals. The issue with some Rai being very large, is that it is almost impossible to carry them around, let alone pass them on to others. In fact, some Rai are so large that it is generally impractical to move them at all and are therefore left in the wild. As a result, when the Yapese buy something with Rai, they simply leave an oral history that the ownership of the Rai is now transferred to another person.
In the most extreme case, there was a famous Rai stone that fell off a ship during transportation and sunk to the bottom...