ABSTRACT
Gift exchange is a dynamic, ongoing process through which social relationships are created, maintained, and expanded in an ever-widening circle, establishing local contexts of action to which other aspects of social life become assimilated – The gift cannot be separated from the personality of the giver, hence those bound by ties of gift exchange participate in each other’s existence – The giving of gifts is inseparable from recognition of the identity of our partners in the exchange, resulting in the mutual constitution of social identities – Processes of gift exchange and recognition go beyond the transfer of goods or services to capture a logic of social exchange which involves mutual participation by the partners in each other’s identity, and whose principal locus in contemporary society is the household.
