The circulation of things from person to person is not simply a utilitarian shifting of objects from those who make them to those who want to consume them. Indeed, a lot of circulation does not even serve that utilitarian purpose. In The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien mentions mathom, the hobbit name for objects of no use that people give as gifts (Tolkien 1937). These resemble the kula valuables that Malinowski described, things with no apparent practical purpose that circulate, seemingly endlessly, from person to person and from island to island.

Even the circulation that does not serve that useful purpose, however, is important in many areas of social life. Economic anthropologists know this, and in this chapter I describe some of the ways that it is important.

Identity and relationship

One area involves social identities and relationships. Who are we? How are we related to each other, and so how should we deal with each other? Whether they know it or not, everyone who has decided who ought to get a birthday present and what to get them or who to invite for a meal and what to serve has had to answer these questions.

On Ponam, a lot circulated in the giving and getting of daily life. It circulated in more ceremonious form in “prestations”, the term for formal presentations of gifts. Bigger or smaller, there were prestations at weddings and funerals, when first fruits were gathered from an important tree, when a men's house was built or refurbished, when a woman gave birth, when a new canoe was finished and ready for launching, and on and on. Achsah Carrier and I figured that during the 13 months of our continuous fieldwork the average islander spent the equivalent of one full day out of every four or five on some prestation or other. What islanders gave and got varied little: bags of rice and sugar, bundles of dried sago flour, bags of wheat flour, tins of fish, dishes of cooked rice or sago, perhaps small amounts of cash. More important occasions, especially brideprice payments, would