Gifts and Social Relations

The Mechanisms of Reciprocity

Bibliographic Data

ID2354681
AuthorsAafke Komter (Utrecht University, corresponding author)
Year2007
Volume22
Issue1
Pages93-107
Publication date2007-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0268-5809 • E-ISSN: 1461-7242
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0268580907070127
OpenAlexW2023966737
LanguageEN
Citations received52
References cited27

In the modern gift literature an anti-utilitarian and a utilitarian view on the giftcan be distinguished. From the anti-utilitarian perspective, the freedom of the gift is seen as one of its main characteristics, while the idea that gifts are caught in a cycle of reciprocity is downplayed. In the utilitarian approach, assumptions about rational actors weighing their preferences according to some utility are predominant. In the first approach, reciprocity is seen as undermining 'genuine' gifts. The utilitarian approach does take reciprocity into account but fails to analyse why the principle of reciprocity is so effective. This article attempts to provide such an explanation. By illuminating both the variety of the forms of the gift and the universality of the underlying principle, it is argued that gifts reflect a multi-purpose symbolic 'utility' that transcends both utilitarianism and anti-utilitarianism

Economics · Epistemology · Positive economics · Reciprocity · Social science · Sociology · Utilitarianism · Computer Science · Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions · Weber, Simmel, Sociological Theory

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