The Ju/’hoansi have a gift exchange system called Hxaro, which functions as a mechanism for circulating goods, lubricating social relations, and maintaining ecological balance (Lee, 2013). Gifts are any non-food items such as beads, arrows, clothing, etc. The social value of the gift outweighs its economic one, as it is used primarily to maintain friendly relations and communicate the status of the relationship. Hence, Hxaro exchanges need not be strictly equivalent, though gifts should meet expectations and the value of exchanges normally balance out over the long run.
Tellingly, Ju/’hoansi measure wealth by the number of friends and frequency of transactions, not by the inventory of goods at hand. A //kaiha, rich man, is someone who trades frequently and have a…show more content… When a family arrives at a distant camp, they first greet and eat, and exchange gifts the next morning (Lee, 2013). Either at once or a day later, return gifts are made, which represents the opening gift of the next exchange. If an individual receives a valued good, he/she keeps it for several months before passing it on to a trading partner. During the exchange, care is taken to play down the value of the gift. The giver tend to be self-depreciating, saying things like, ‘I take out this small thing to give you’ (Lee, 2013).
Unbalanced reciprocity is underscored in the phrase, ‘In Hxaro, you are never finished’. Ties of mutual reciprocity operate on two levels. The first is delayed, non-equivalent gift exchange that designates a partnership and gives information about the status of the second, an underlying relationship of mutual reciprocity (Wiessner, 1994).
Upon receiving a gift, a person is not obliged to reciprocate immediately. Over time, reciprocal exchange results in a constant circulation of goods and equal distribution of wealth since it is expected that nobody keeps Hxaro goods for very
