Gift and Market Exchange in Poor Regions

Gift and Market exchange in poor regions
Economic Anthropology
By Dumitru Trifan
Centre for Europe 2011.

Agenda:
1. Introduction................................................................................................................................................................. 3
2. Way of life................................................................................................................................................................... 3
2. Gifts............................................................................................................................................................................. 4
3. Market......................................................................................................................................................................... 6
4. Conclusions................................................................................................................................................................. 7
5. Personal opinion..........................................................................................................................................................7
6. References...................................................................................................................................................................8
2
Gift and Market exchange in poor regions
1. Introduction
We look at the world from different perspectives, depending on our past, life conditions, place where we
are living or lived and culture. Now in the world we can see that people are very different, separated by
nations, languages, history, culture ”Some actions that are not rational within one culture may be entirely
rational in another”1. We can easy observe the difference between the West and the East societies, ways of
living, but the focus of this paper in more specific, by trying to divide one more time society in rural and
urban, we offer an overview on rural life, by analysis of the details of interaction between people, the
relations between people and the environment and particularities of adaptation of peoples to the conditions
of life.
2. Way of life
The society in rural places is organized simply, it can be seed like a “network of households” 2, is still the
capitalist society where family is the principal and distinct element that is the basic form of organization of
the people. “Family in capitalist society commitments are thought to be separated from public involvements
and to be limited to a narrow range of relationships (Barreet & McIntosh 1982)” 3. In average, in villages are
more old people than young and not so much children’s. In the same time family play an important role in
surviving in these places. “Family is historically entrenched in the constitution of labor market” 4. Resources
are obtained in different ways, that are particular to the type of resource, but a main division is between
resources obtained from environment, nature, by agriculture, etc, here we can find the concept of “Economic
real (Polany 1957)”5 and indeed “the habitus is an ideological environment which is produced by history and
produces practices (Bourdien 1980)”6; and, by exchange in different forms – it can be an economic
transaction, or a gift, these types of exchanges involve particular features. “People’s relationships with their
environments are understood by them in terms of ideas, values and metaphors which it is of the field worker
to uncover”7. We can particularly remark that eastern societies way of living is strongly linked to the
“reciprocity as a moral norm structuring the giving and returning of help” 8, while “western societies use the
1
Source: Social Anthropology. Chris Hann. Page 55.
2
Source: New directions in Economic anthropology. Susana Narotzky. Page 76.
3
Source: The gift: an interdisciplinary perspective . Aafke E. Kompter. Page 88.
4
5
6
7
8
3
concept of reciprocity as particularly suited to economies strongly embedded in the fabric of social life and
lacking a generalized market – price system for establishing equivalence of value“ 9. We can understand
“reciprocity as interlocking status duties which people owe one another (Malinowski)” 10. In the rural
societies of Eastern Europe, it is easy to observe the norm of reciprocity in everyday relations, even if you
are a stranger and just enter in this space, they will ask for “balanced reciprocity” 11, by salutation, gesture,
looks. “Relations with little or no reciprocity may occur when power disparities allow one party to coerce the
other”12. The reciprocity is based on credible relations. “The stability and hence the trust that members have
in them, is achieved through the frameworks of mental knowing that result from extensive interactions
(Goffman 1971)”13. Poverty in these places can be very accentuated, but in average it is not. Existing
relations make “exchange, to be, an integral part of society’s economy (Polany)” 14. It is more difficult in the
relations of exchange involving goods and services, because the values of these there is another than in cities
where you can find everything near you. Here, the resources are not so easy accessible, that’s way it is hard
to keep a market economy in these places. However, the rural life is a life in a “field of information” 15, where
everybody knows what happens in each moment, because of a continuous searching process of opportunities.
We can interpret the reciprocal help as an obligatory condition there. Of course it is not an isolated society
and he has the links with the urban one, by understanding that the cities are the principal source of money as
resource. These links are various, but the main reasons are economic one, it can involve the dual sense of
supply products or the migration of the work force as an aspect of the spatial organization of production” 16.
“Migration, is an individual response to push – pull regional economic factors and the individual’s decision
– making capacities to optimize income opportunities” 17. We can understand their work as a process of
obtaining of economic values. “The value is the amount of labor necessary, or the labor time socially
necessary for its reproduction (Marx 1952)” 18. “Only by equating all the labor in the society it becomes
abstract social labor and a measure of value (Marx 1952)” 19. More important in these societies are the
traditions, culture, historical background. People argue that these are the places where these values are kept,
but not many people know how this happens.
2. Gifts
9
10
Source: For Sociology. Renewalend Critique in Sociology today. Alwin W. Goldner. Page 240.
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
4
“The open texture of social life is constrained by the continuity of personal relationships (Duck & Perlnan
1985)”20. One important element in social exchange is the gift. “The social relations, existing between people
are express in the material bonding of the gift, the material object transferred as a gift embodies in such a
way the person(s) of its previous holder(s) that it pulls back toward the giver and creates a return gift field of
force”21. Does not matter when and where was the gift given, it’s significance is always important. It can
serve as a “starting mechanism”22 in the beginning of the relationships or it can increase the element of
“trustability (A.Smith 1989)”23 in relations. “The things exchanged may be concretely different but should be
equal, the norm of reciprocity is a concrete and special mechanism involved in maintenance of any stable
social system”24. One feature here is very important, it is about the peoples, the integration in this society,
related to culture, social norms, religion, etc. “Knowledge of the other’s personality, family, history, church
and so on is relevant to the trust one has that the exchange will be completed (Plattner 1989)” 25. “It’s not the
gift but the sentiment that counts”26. We can agree here that “the cultural significance of the gift transactions
lies their being the building blocks for human society (Mauss 1954)” 27. However, the people always search
for the equality and here is not an exception, more, the equality here is more important because of the
context of difficult conditions of life. “Trust, fear and the bargaining for equivalence – three elements
present at the core of most exchange processes” 28, also in the process of gift exchange. As we know “the
essential features of gift transactions are the obligation to give, the obligation to receive and the obligation to
make a return for gifts received (Durheim 1947)” 29. The general people’s perception is that of “balanced
social relationships”30 by meaning of interactions and values of the gifts, because “no human beings, at
whatever stage of culture, complete, by eliminate spiritual preocupations from their economic concerns” 31,
also there are other “variables that are important: equivalence of value and the time between gift and returns
movements”32. There everybody understand why it is so important that gifts to be equal, also it have to be
mentioned that unequal gifts create more distance between the individuals, inequality, or can be understood
as a gesture of supremacy in relations or a lack of respect. In general, “negative reciprocity, where the social
distance is greater and material interest is the sole motive of the transaction” 33 is not welcome. However,
“the norm of reciprocity cannot apply with full force in relations with children, old people” 34, but in the case
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
5
of mature people “relative exchange value (Marshall 1964)” 35 in gifts it is very important. “In the gift, as in
total prestations, things and persons are intertwined and reciprocally constitutive of their values” 36.
3. Market
It is hard to imagine a society where is no economic exchange. Transactions are an obligatory part of life
of all societies. As social anthropologists mention, there is “four economic fields: work, exchange, property
and consumption”37, that create social life. In this case, the transactions amount is limited due to the fact that
the in the rural areas, the necessity of goods for consumption is not so big like in the case of the cities,
because, the agriculture is developed. However, the need of transactions exist, of course, because of
economic exchange with other regions, cities, insider processes, the taxes collection, etc. These transactions
concerns “circulation”38 of goods and services that cannot be obtained in the frame of the villages, and have
the condition of profitability, because of factor of distance, that mean expenses. If we concentrate on inside
part of villages life, we can observe that there is a market, however small, sometimes it can involve even
“silent trade”39, or just barter (”Barter is a form of exchange associated with the direct satisfaction of
reciprocal needs”40). The elements of transactions are the same, the parties, trust and money, which plays
here two roles “as a measure of value, and a s a medium of exchange (A. Smith 1982)” 41. The barter also can
be understood as a transaction, but in this case, money do not mediate the exchange, but they are still used as
a measure of value, by the participants, they not use real money, but refer to them the amounts of goods or
provided services that are in exchange. The barter is more used in these regions than transactions involving
money. In general, “many roles involves responsibilities to provide goods and services for others which are
simply taken from granted as inevitable consequences of the division of labor (Cheal 1984)” 42, but in this
case, the division of labor, does not matter so much, it is just a reciprocal satisfaction of the needs. “The
meaning of different transactional modes is to be understood within the larger framework of social
reproduction”43, also in rural regions. One particular element of all economic exchanges that is used to assure
“Complementarity and Reciprocity”44 is the confidence, or the “Granovertter’s argument on embeddednes
(1985), which rests almost exclusively on the production of trust in transactions” 45, that is very small in
villages because of the condition slow circulation of the money. It have to be mentioned, that in these
villages, the people, are not just knowing each other, but also many times are members of common families.
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
6
It is possible to say that “the tension between market relationships and personal relationships is a distinctive
characteristic of social life in the capitalist societies” 46, but here, this is an factor that makes economic
transactions difficult. The concept of ”Market Culture or Market System” 47 is not consistent with this chain
of conditions, but the concept of ”Moral economy (David Cheal)” 48 is, in fact, the Moral economy is the base
of common actions of those peoples, of course not all the times, but in this way, the consensus, work, in
order to full fill their needs. These regions are poor, not developed, because of life premises. The state
provide, some help, in economic terms, but this is not enough and many young people, that were born there,
decide to migrate to the cities. The labor force leave these places, and this fact is bad for the market. In
overall, these chains of markets are underdeveloped, the perspectives for their development are limited and
decrease, however, there is an reverse effect – the process of urbanization, that is beneficial for the country.
4. Conclusions
The exchange processes in poor regions are very much affected by hard conditions of life, but in the same
time, these conditions makes peoples to be more closer each other, and this foster the Moral economy,
reciprocal help, but not in all the cases. In gift exchange, there is a continuous search for balanced
reciprocity in spiritual and economic terms, while in market exchange, situation is much more complicated.
Market exchange has different forms and is more based on reciprocal satisfaction of the needs, measured in
economic terms. Also in there is important the element of trust that members have one in another. These
societies require full integration in order to obtain the trust. The social values constitute an obligatory
attribute of life, probably that’s way these places are known as origin of culture and traditions.
Unfortunately, the population decrease, and this do the life there even more hard for the people who are left.
5. Personal opinion
From my point of view, exchanges in the rural spaces are very complicated to understand, because, from
the perspective of a stranger we cannot see what is behind. There is many elements that counts, and are
result of integration in those societies. Gift exchange is accompanied with balance and equality, and in these
cases the objects that are exchanged are very important, because, they cause sentiments and further attitudes
in relations. Market exchange is based on trust, complementarity and reciprocity with equal outputs in
economic and relational terms, many times these serve as a base of work for Moral economy. The overall
situation there have the tendency of decline - a negative perspective, however, the enlargement of the cities,
as a result is a positive one.
46
47
48
Source: The gift: an interdisciplinary perspective . Aafke E. Kompter. Ch. 7.
7
6. References
New directions in Economic anthropology. Susana Narotzky. Pluto Press. London – Chicago. IL. 1997.
The gift: an interdisciplinary perspective . Aafke E. Kompter. Amsterdam University Press 1996.
For Sociology. Renewalend Critique in Sociology today. Alwin W. Goldner. Allen Lane. London 1973.
Social Anthropology. Chris Hann. Teach yourself books. Hoddev & Stoughtou. 2000.

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