ABSTRACT
Where do reciprocity and redistribution intersect in the moral economies of rural Myanmar? This chapter engages with James Ferguson’s work on redistribution (Give a Man a Fish), considering the welfare activities of parahita organizations through the lens of performativity theory to explore what is being redistributed, how, and on what terms. The reciprocity is often asymmetrical, and a set of explicit and implicit reciprocal expectations, by claimants on organizations, by organizations on claimants, by organizations on community members, by the host communities on the government, and finally by the government on the organizations, are all framed with performative expectations shaped by the concept of parahita. This then introduces the next chapter, which interrogates the implications of redistributive practice based on a culturally and religiously bounded concept.
