Die konstitutiven Widersprüche der Gabe

Abstract

Debates on taxonomies of transaction types have been a fertile source for the anal-ysis and comparison of societies. The present contribution aims to describe types of relationships in a terminology that renders visible both their differentiating features and their shared foun-dations, so as to make possible a more flexible use of categories. The focus is on the question of how the concept of sharing relates to the distinction between gift and commodity. Starting from the theory of the gift, the term obligation – to give, receive and return – is replaced by the term expectation. This draws attention to three constitutive contradictions of the gift that are found in modified ways in commodity transfers and in sharing. First, each transfer makes expectable a future that cannot be determined. Secondly, each transfer relates to the values of a specific com-munity whose boundaries and coherence always remain ambiguous. Thirdly, transfers constitute persons in a social and even public manner, but they remain opaque. These contradictions define a dynamic field of types of transfer that are characterized variously by weak or strong expecta-tions, differing ranges of value systems and different degrees of the opacity and transparency of persons.