A gift economy is a system of exchange in which valuables are given without an explicit agreement for immediate or future reward, rather than sold. Marcel Mauss's foundational 1925 study The Gift argued that such prestations are not really between individuals but between representatives of larger collectives, and that gift and prestation exchange served economic, kinship, religious and political functions simultaneously rather than a narrowly economic one; because failing to reciprocate a gift ends the relationship it was meant to sustain, the obligation to return a gift, not individual self-interest, is what Mauss treated as holding a gift economy together. The Kula ring of the Trobriand Islands and the Potlatch of the Pacific Northwest, both already on this atlas, are the discipline's two best-documented examples.
Facts
Typical RegionSourced to the subject's own accountBest documented via the Kula ring of the Massim archipelago, Papua New Guinea, and the Potlatch of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America, though gift-exchange systems are recorded much more broadly. 1 Documented YearSourced to the subject's own account Cross-Tradition Connections
Sources
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.