Reconsidering recipocity and capitalism

For nearly a century, anthropologists have been preoccupied with the gift. So much so, that one of the signature contributions of the subfield of economic anthropology has been to remind the human sciences at large of its importance, not only in nonindustrial societies but in contemporary settings as well. By illuminating the importance of gift-giving in Kwakwakaʼwakw potlach ceremonies to understand social and political relationships, the discipline was able to cast a reflection by which it could better grasp the role that reciprocity plays in the contemporary world. Thus, the role of Christmas or birthday presents in forging social relations or the ostentatious white tiger and cheetah furs (later determined to be fakes) presented to former US president Donald Trump on his first diplomatic visit with the Saudi royal family could be understood through the optics afforded by attention to the gift. The central insight that the foregrounding of gift exchanges generated was that not every transaction, even in liberal market societies, could be reduced to rational economic calculations. Rather, social or political systems were produced through material-semiotic relationships mediated through gift exchange. The essays collected here, however, move beyondmerely rehashing the long-established anthropological truism that reciproicity is indispensable to the formation of social and political ties. Indeed, in highlighting transnational giving the essays make three critical interventions that illustrate the enduring importance of the gift in economic anthropology. First, they illustrate the importance of thinking about the gift on a transnational scale. Second, they deepen our understanding of the role of gifts and charity in coalescing collective identities, not only in in terms of local communities but in broader national, diasporic and global terms as well. And, third, the essays draw attention to the fact that not all transnational or global economic exchanges can be understood through the same logics that we comprehend market relationships. In making these interventions, the essays reveal