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Meetings

Gifts without exchange

University of New South Wales, a.metcalfe{at}unsw.edu

Ann Game

University of New South Wales, a.game{at}unsw.edu.au

This article examines the different theories of meeting offered by Durkheim, Mauss, Sartre, Lévi-Strauss, Bohm, Levinas and Buber. Through this examination we question the common assumption that social life, and more particularly the gift, is based on exchange — on the sequence of giving, receiving and reciprocating — which is fundamentally a Hegelian logic of subjects and objects. While many aspects of social life take this form, true meeting is characterized by a quality of grace; it occurs only when the Hegelian world gives way to a presence that has a different temporality, spatiality and ontology. This world is glimpsed, but inadequately conceptualized, in Durkheim s theory of religious congregation, which is characterized by a tension between identity and relational logics.

Key Words: Durkheim • exchange • gift • grace • Mauss • meeting • respect • ritual • sacred • subjects

European Journal of Cultural Studies, Vol. 11, No. 1, 101-117 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1367549407084966


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