Donner et rendre : la circulation non marchande du travail de reproduction sociale

Abstract

In Kiriwina, a society of horticulturists in Papua New Guinea, labor seems to be given freely. However, certain events in social life are institutionalized moments to account for reproductive labor and reward it. This article develops an analysis of the non-commercial circulation of labor and shows that labor, thought of as a favor between relatives, is a transaction within a personal relationship and a long temporality that must be returned. These individuals, who live in a hybrid economy and are thus acquainted with market and non-market work, articulate these labor regimes according to their economic socialization and the stakes of the situation in which they find themselves.

Keywords

• non-commercial labor
• reproductive labor
• economic ethnography
• non-commercial flow
• gift
• Kiriwina