ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the conceptual distinction between the gift and exchange. It counters the prevalent anthropological and sociological approach for which the gift is always already placed within the framework of reciprocity that is useful to draw on some of the insights by Derrida. Sacrifice is a precondition of the gift, and a sacrifice for the sake of the other amounts to a gift. Of course, insofar as the gift can never remain without relation, it always also has a relation to the circle of exchange. As Derrida writes, wherever time as circle is predominant, the gift is impossible. The gift is the impossible, for it can never present itself as a gift. As regards the gift, there is no price set on what is given, but the thing given is given unconditionally, for free, without explicit consideration or demand of recompense. A gift is at once a token of generosity and a challenge.
