Balises conceptuelles, terminologiques et méthodologiques pour aborder les transferts non marchands

Abstract

Anthropology has long identified the existence of non-commercial flow of goods and services. However, because of their heterogeneity, these social practices are difficult to conceptualize and categorize. While for a long time the concept of Gift dominated the literature on these forms of transfers, it is now widely criticized. But then, how can we precisely designate and define these specific forms of transfers and the field they belong to? Is there a conceptual frame able to bring together the great diversity of non-commecial transfers? If yes, what are its properties? This introduction shows that it remains useful and necessary to have common concepts to describe and distinguish transfers observed in different realities, although in empirical reality transfers are difficult to classify in a fixed and exclusive category. Building on and extending the conceptual and methodological advances in this field of research, this article seeks to characterize and delimit the field of non-commercial circulation and to identify certain specific forms of transfer within this field. It argues that the common feature of these non-commercial transfers is the necessary presence of another social relationship between the protagonists than the one established during the transactional interaction. When this social extra-economic relationship that shapes and conditions the course of the transfers falls within the sphere of interpersonal relations, a sub-field appears: the sphere of interpersonal transfers. On this basis, the author proposes a common grammar to name, distinguish and analyze the different forms of transfers and modes of circulation.

Keywords

• non-commercial flow
• transfer
• exchange
• gift
• interpersonal relationship
• Mauss (Marcel)