Taganga Things: Reflections about the Gift in a Community of Indigenous Fishermen in the Colombian Caribbean

Abstract

This article reflects on theories of exchange, taking the gift as its starting point. According to Bourdieu, the end of the twentieth century was characterized by the emergence of theories that viewed behavior as a phenomenon that could be explained by cost-benefit logic. The French sociologist argues that this approach can be countered by gift theory, according to which exchanges create relationships rather than profits. However, this theory excludes dynamics present in local economies, in which exchanges take place between human and non-human entities. Based on field research conducted with a community of indigenous fishermen in Taganga, on the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta coast (Colombia), this article argues that gifts generate exchanges and express philosophical senses about the human beings’ place in relationship systems with entities such as the sea and the land.