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.

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