Effectively, we the British have given up about £9 billion in order that our capital city should be the venue for a gigantic spectacle. The deliberate intention is that there should be many more viewers, and hence more beneficiaries, in other countries than there are in our own. The spectacle has come and gone, and in that sense the money is "down the drain". It can never be repeated in exactly the same way, although the British government could bid for other big international sporting events and spend billions of pounds on those as well. As with potlatch, what we are doing seems economically irrational, even mad. Why do we want to chuck money at foreigners in quite this way?

Newspaper headlines tell us why. By common consent (or at any rate by agreement between the Sun and the BBC), London's opening ceremony was the best ever, a tribute to the organisers and indeed to Britain at large. 

The facilities have been outstanding, the media coverage impressive and the sunshine perfect. The Olympics have given us the British an opportunity to show off to the rest of the world, to demonstrate our superiority (in terms of organisation, ostentation and the weather) over lesser breeds in other lands. Conspicuous waste has enhanced our prestige. 

Perhaps visiting anthropologists would describe us as crazy. But haven't they noticed how happy we are? Like the Kwakiutl of Vancouver Island, we are exhilarated by the awarding of nobility titles. We even participate in various forms of ritualised public frenzy — flag-waving, car-horn tooting and such like — when representatives of our tribe win medals. Records of this medal winning are maintained, going back many generations, and our performance is compared favourably with that at other potlatches . . . sorry, other Olympics, such as the previous two in London in 1908 and 1948. Superiority in league tables is achieved by receiving the highest number of nobility titles/medals over a series of potlatches/Olympics. 

What was Benedict's overall verdict on the north-west American Indians in Patterns of Culture? They are "a vigorous and overbearing people" who have "a culture of no common order". More generally, "sharply differentiated from that of the surrounding tribes", this culture has a zest "which it is difficult to match among other peoples". The Daily Mail could not have put it better. 

And let us be clear: Britain's triumph in the 2012 Olympics is a tribute to the wisdom and foresight of its tribal leaders, particularly John Major, Tony Blair and Boris Johnson, while Gordon Brown had always planned the gold haul as a smart way of replenishing our international reserves.