Dy­lan Ker­ri­g­an

In a re­cent op-ed in the Wash­ing­ton Post, an an­thro­pol­o­gist asked, "What is the dif­fer­ence be­tween a gift and a bribe?"In con­trast to the way the le­gal pro­fes­sion im­pli­cates a gift as a bribe, an­thro­pol­o­gists don't fo­cus on whether or not a gift-giv­er clear­ly states there is a "quid pro quo" to any gift ex­change. For the an­thro­pol­o­gist, gift ex­change is more nu­anced.

The Gift, writ­ten in 1925 by French so­ci­ol­o­gist Mar­cel Mauss, is the most fa­mous book on gift ex­change. Mauss' cen­tral point was that re­gard­less of in­tent, in the act of gift-giv­ing a rec­i­p­ro­cal so­cial bond is formed. As such gift-giv­ing can cre­ate and re­in­force so­cial re­la­tion­ships, in­clud­ing hi­er­ar­chies.

This is not be­cause one gives a gift ex­pect­ing it to be rec­i­p­ro­cat­ed; in many cas­es that would spoil the act. Rather it's be­cause gift ex­change is one el­e­ment in how hu­mans forge so­cial bonds and net­works. For so­cial ties or friend­ships to be nur­tured and main­tained they im­ply reci­procity, whether it's a gift, favour, hard work, time, loy­al­ty, or some­thing else.

http://www.guardian.co.tt/dig­i­tal/new-mem­bers