Is exchange universal?

Authors
Citation
P. Bonte, Is exchange universal?, HOMME, (154-55), 2000, pp. 39-65
Citations number
57
Categorie Soggetti
Sociology & Antropology
Journal title
HOMME
ISSN journal
04394216 → ACNP
Issue
154-55
Year of publication
2000
Pages
39 - 65
Database
ISI
SICI code
0439-4216(200004/09):154-55<39:IEU>2.0.ZU;2-8
Abstract
"Arab marriage" fits into a set of facts that Claude Levi-Strauss called "m arriage of a close degree". On the basis of ethnological data concerning th e Arabs as well as Tuaregs, Ancient Greeks, etc., questions are raised abou t the universality of the rule of exchange formulated in Les structures ele mentaires de la parente, a rule that assigns descent a structurally determi nant role. New ways of formalizing data in terms of the circulation of bodi ly substances are used in an attempt to show that the aforementioned system s of kinship and marital alliance refer to ways of handling, structurally a nd cognitively the masculine/feminine opposition, ways that follow a ration ale not of exchange but of sharing.