[Linganth] CFP: AAA panel on Avoiding Giving

[Berman, Elise]

Dear all,

Ryan Schram and I are co-organizing an AAA panel. Below is a draft of
the abstract. We would like interested participants to send us an
abstract by April 1.

Participants should be aware that our eventual goal is to produce an
edited volume. To that end, we are also asking participants to commit
to providing a polished paper (a bit longer than the AAA paper) in
December. We will be discussing all the papers electronically in
February, and then will hopefully submit the book sometime in 2017.

Please let us know if you are interested.

Sincerely,
Elise

----
Abstract (DRAFT): Avoiding Giving

In spite of criticisms, Mauss's theory of reciprocity still looms
large in studies of Oceania and beyond. Although contemporary studies
have shied away from treating reciprocity as an abstract norm that
constrains behavior, many scholars continue to emphasize the ways in
which people become bound to each other when they give and receive.

In contrast, this session invites participants to examine the often
unseen moments where people avoid giving, receiving, and returning.
Avoiding giving often looks like an absence of action. Yet silences
and avoidances, like gifts, are culturally patterned and must be
understood as a symbolic language of action. Often far from the
spectacles of ceremonial reciprocity, these moments are still central
to everyday life and social relationships. They may serve as a
resource for managing the tempo of interactions, and thus help actors
put other symbolic resources to their most effective ends. They may
also comment upon other interactions and other relationships by their
marked departure from expected behaviors. They may be read as signs of
failure, loss and decline, and thus serve to typify cultural change
itself. In this session, we want to bring practice theory,
neo-Maussian value theories, and theories of communication into a new
dialogue that sheds light on how things circulate and why certain
kinds of circulation matter.
--
Elise Berman
Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
UNC Charlotte
https://clas-pages.uncc.edu/elise-berman/