Gift and commodity: On the nature of Muduga transaction

Abstract

This essay focuses on the nature of transaction among the Muduga, a tribal community in South India, and tries to explore the idea of the correlation between kinship structure and exchange. Traditional anthropological views of exchange characterize gift and commodity as oppositional and mutually exclusive. I argue that Muduga transactions, though predominantly of the gift exchange type, share also certain characteristics with the commodity type. Considering both types as coexisting but varying in their relative importance, depending on the social relations and the context of specific transactions, we arrive at a deeper understanding of Muduga transaction.