Year: 2010
Type: article
Abstract: Bernard Juillerat’s argument about the way, in interpretations of Melanesian material, the gift has often been tied to reciprocity embeds the gift in a psychoanalytically informed universe. The power of his argument is acknowledged. Stepping outside such a universe, this article accords a different kind of power to his observations. It shows how they prompt some anthropologically interesting questions about practices of organ and tissue donation in North America. For where Juillerat would detach the gift from reciprocity, some of those engaged in debates over the ethics of donation would like to see reciprocity attached to the gift. What Euro-American paradigm underlies these arguments?
DOI: 10.4000/jso.6094
Author: Marilyn Strathern
Institution: University of Cambridge
Language: French
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W2022737124