Bride‐service and the absent gift

Abstract

Building on a previous experiment to apply Strathern's discussions of M elanesian gift exchange to ethnography relating to T ukanoan societies in Northwest A mazonia, this essay asks why other authors should repeatedly affirm that the gift has no relevance in the A mazonian context. Two answers are proposed. Firstly, the authors concerned tend to assume that a particular type of social formation is characteristic of A mazonia as a whole. The T ukanoans, who engage in ceremonial exchange of food and goods, do not fit this rubric. Secondly, despite their differences, these authors assume that A mazonian societies are bride‐service societies where, axiomatically, there can be no gift. The T ukanoans are not bride‐service societies and, if anything, tend towards the bride‐wealth alternative. This T ukanoan exception serves to re‐emphasize the diversity of A mazonian social formations, one that would have been even greater in the archaeological past. It also warns against the dangers of over‐hasty theoretical closure.