ABSTRACT
The primary value in Wolof society is exchange. This is an exchange in which food plays a privileged part—as compared with objects proper—no matter the partners or the social segments involved. In a caste society like that of the Wolof, the position of an individual is actualized through ritual gifts which he receives or which he makes on the occasion of certain ceremonies. Adults who solicit gifts for themselves, like grandmother, are in fact prefiguring future social exchanges which will mainly take place within the extended sibling group. If the child is asked—fairly insistently—to show proof of a disposition towards exchange and his capacity for gift-giving, it is with a view towards his concrete position among his peer group. A mechanism for self-regulation exists in the fraternal group, due to the power inherent in the word of the adult, whose direct intervention is no longer needed.
