Gifts are deeply seated in the organisation of social life. We all give and receive gifts and tend to think of the rituals of exchange as both ubiquitous and rather pleasing. But what happens when the usual traffic of gifts is delayed or displaced?

When gifts are given without a clear indication of their expectations, recipients may feel uncertain about how to respond. The timeline of reciprocation can also blur; a gift might not be reciprocated immediately or in kind, complicating the relationship and fuelling anxiety regarding the roles of the giver and receiver. Hence, gifts cannot be adequately understood without acknowledging their dark side.

Foregrounding the diversity of gift-giving practices as well as the heterogeneity and contingency of their meanings, we examine objects, gestures, and performances of giving that might not fit the classical anthropological definitions of what a gift is and does.

Our intention, however, is not to so much to replace classical anthropological gift theories as to supplement them and carry them forward by exploring contemporary forms of gifting. Indeed, we suggest that the Maussian model still serve to understand practices of reciprocity in late-industrial societies, yet this Special Issue contributes to delineate the heuristic potential and limitations of classical models in the present.

Quotes

“Gifts cannot be adequately understood without acknowledging their dark side… the troublesome feelings that arise from social indebtedness.” p. 1

“Interruptions (delay, refusal, displacement) are intrinsic to gift relations..” p. 2

“The problem begins with what is left of the gift after the giving instance.” p. 5

“Giving is an act that gives itself, an experiment that generates unexpected, not always structured events to follow.” p. 6

Special Issue: Delayed and Displaced Gifts

Guest Editors: Francisco Martínez and Olli Pyyhtinen

• Introduction: Delayed and Displaced Gifts. Francisco Martínez and Olli Pyyhtinen
• The Hauntology of Intracorporeal Gifts. Margrit Shildrick
• The Right to Be Trash: Displacement, Dispossession and Givenness of Waste in the Toy World. Alexandra Urakova
• Accursed Gift: Contaminated soil bags and the shape of time after the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster. Eunsil Shin
• Dormant Gifts: Animating the Imagined and Narrated Pasts and Futures of Gifts. Sophie Woodward
• Parasitic Gifts in a Forgotten Soviet Library. Francisco Martínez

Commentary: What Is Left of the Gift? Roger Sansi