1. Coercive Exchange: Magic, Agency and the Gift in a Melanesian Society.
- Author
-
Eves, Richard
- Subjects
MAGIC ,GENEROSITY ,GIFT giving - Abstract
Here I offer a challenge to some of the theoretical truisms that have developed concerning gift exchange, which has been a topic of scholarly debate for almost a century. Much discussion has focussed on how giving creates obligations and increases the power of the giver. Taking the case of the Lelet of New Ireland, Papua New Guinea, I examine how people use magic to usurp the agency of the giver, thus forcing them to give through 'coercive exchange'. Magic, I argue, has the capacity to upend how obligation is understood to operate. People give, not because of the customary social obligation, but because magic has been used to extract their wealth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2023
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