This article proposes the concept of negative reciprocity as a necessary and substantive aspect of the general concept of reciprocity. We contend that the concept of reciprocity is useful only when conceived simultaneously in its negative and positive forms as they are articulated in historical processes. If treated in all its complexity the concept of reciprocity might help us to understand the ambivalence often present in social relationships. Reference to a moral domain is the central tenet that differentiates reciprocity from exchange. Reciprocity is based on a shared morality in its positive form and on the break, transformation or suspension of the moral order in its negative form. We base our discussion on the ethnographic account of the social relations that supported circulation of resources in the Auschwitz concentration camp. However, a comparative perspective indicates that the negative reciprocity pervading Auschwitz's social relations is an extreme example of a broader category of human interaction in no way unique.
Algazi, G. (forthcoming) `Feigned Reciprocities. Lords, Peasants, and the Afterlife of Late Medieval Strategies', in Gadi Algazi , Valentin Groebner and Bernhard Jussen (eds) Negotiating the Gift , papers presented at the colloquium Négocier le Don / Negotiating the Gift. Paris, December 1998. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
2.
Balandier, G. (1975) Antropo-lógicas. Barcelona: Ediciones Península.
3.
Bauman, Z. (1989) Modernity and the Holocaust. Cambridge: Polity Press.
4.
Bauman, Z. (1991) Modernity and Ambivalence. Cambridge: Polity Press.
5.
Birnbau, S. (1989[1946]) Une Française Juive est Revenue. Paris: Hérault Éditions.
6.
Bloch, M. and J. Parry (1989) `Introduction: Money and the Morality of Exchange' , in J. Parry and M. Bloch (eds) Money and the Morality of Exchange. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
7.
Bourdieu, P. (1980) Le sens pratique. Paris: Les Editions de Minuit.
8.
Bourdieu, P. (1989) `La ilusión biográfica', Historia y Fuente Oral2.
9.
Cohen, E.A. (1953) Human Behavior in the Concentration Camp. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
10.
Czech, D. (1978) Konzentrationslager Auschwitz, in Auschwitz Nazi Extermination Camp. Varsovia: Interpress Publishers.
11.
Czech, D. (1990) Auschwitz Chronicle 1939-1945. New York: Henry Holt and Co.
12.
Czech, D. (1994) `The Auschwitz Prisoner Administration', in Y. Gutman and M. Berenbaum (eds) Anatomy of the Auschwitz Death Camp. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
13.
Durkheim, E. (1933) On the Division of Labor in Society. New York: Macmillan.
14.
Dwork, D. and R. Van Pelt (1996) Auschwitz. 1270 to the Present. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.
15.
Ferencz, B. (1979) Less than Slaves. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
16.
Finkelstein, N.G. (2000) The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering. London: Verso .
17.
Godelier, M. (1996) L'énigme du don. Paris: Fayard.
18.
Gouldner, A.W. (1960) `The Norm of Reciprocity: A Preliminary Statement' , American Sociological Review25(2).
19.
Gregory, C.A. (1994) `Exchange and Reciprocity', in T. Ingold (ed.) Companion Encyclopedia of Anthropology. London: Routledge .
20.
Guha, R. (1988) `The Prose of Counter-Insurgency', in R. Guha and G.C. Spivak (eds) Selected Subaltern Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
21.
Hart, K. (1981) Return to Auschwitz. London : Sidgwick & Jackson.
22.
Harvey, D. (1989) The Condition of Postmodernity. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
23.
Heftler, N. (1992) Si tu t'en sors: Auschwitz 1944-1945. Paris: La Découverte.
Höss, R. (1978) `Autobiography', in Panstowe Muzeum Auschwitz Seen by the SS. Oswiecim: Publications of Panstowe Muzeum.
26.
Laks, S. (1991) Mélodies D'Auschwitz. Paris : Cerf.
27.
Lebor, A. (1998) Los banqueros secretos de Hitler. Barcelona: Grijalbo-Mondadori.
28.
Lengyel, O. (1983[1947]) Five Chimneys: The Story of Auschwitz. New York: Howard Fertig.
29.
Levi, P. (1989) Los hundidos y los salvados. Barcelona: Muchnik Editores.
30.
Lewinska, P. (1945) Vingt Mois à Auschwitz. Paris : Éditions Nagel.
31.
Malinowski, B. (1961[1922]) Argonauts of the Western Pacific. New York: Dutton & Co.
32.
Malinowski, B. (1971[1926]) Crimen y costumbre en la sociedad salvaje . Barcelona: Ariel.
33.
Malinowski, B. (1977[1935]) El cultivo de la tierra y los ritos agrícolas en las islas Trobriand. Barcelona: Labor.
34.
Mauss, M. (1968 [1923-4]) `Essai sur le don. Forme et raison de l'échange dans les sociétés archaïques', in M. Mauss, Sociologie et anthropologie . Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
35.
Moore, B. (1978) Injustice. The Social Bases of Obedience and Revolt . New York: Macmillan.
36.
Müller, P. (1979) Auschwitz Inferno. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
37.
Nahon, M. (1989) Birkenau, the Camp of Death. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.
38.
Naumann, B. (1966) Auschwitz: A Report on the Proceedings Against Mulka and Others Before the Court at Frankfurt. New York : Frederick A. Praeger.
39.
Novick, P. (1999) The Holocaust in American Life. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
40.
Panstowe Muzeum (1978) Auschwitz Seen by the SS. Oswiecim : Publications of Panstowe Muzeum.
41.
Pawelczynska, A. (1979) Values and Violence in Auschwitz: A Sociological Analysis. Berkeley: University of California Press.
42.
Polanyi, K. (1971[1944]) The Great Transformation. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
43.
Polanyi, K. (1977) The Livelihood of Man. New York : Academic Press.
44.
Portelli, A. (1989) `Historia y memoria. La muerte de Luigi Trastulli' , in Historia y Fuente Oral 1.
45.
Roseberry, W. (1989) Anthropologies and Histories. Essays in Culture, History, and Political Economy. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
46.
Roseberry, W. (1994) `Hegemony and the Language of Contention', in G. Joseph and D. Nugent (eds) Everyday Forms of State Formation. Revolution and the Negotiation of Rule in Modern Mexico. Durham, NC : Duke University Press.
47.
Sahlins, M. (1965) `On the Sociology of Primitive Exchange', in M. Banton (ed.) The Relevance of Models for Social Anthropology. London: Tavistock Publications.
48.
Sahlins, M. (1979) `Hombre pobre, hombre rico, gran hombre, jefe: tipos políticos de Melanesia y Polinesia', in J.R. Llobera (ed.) Antropología política. Barcelona: Anagrama.
49.
Sereny, G. (1995) Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth. New York: Albert A. Knopf.
50.
Sofsky, W. (1995) L'Organisation de la Terreur. Paris: Calmann-Lévy.
51.
Speer, A. (1969) Memorias. Barcelona: Plaza y Janés.
52.
Szmaglewska, S. (1947) Smoke over Birkenau. New York : Henry Holt and Co.
53.
Tedeschi, G. (1992) There is a Place on Earth: A Woman in Birkenau . New York: Pantheon Books.
54.
Tillion, G. (1988[1946]) Ravensbrück. Paris: Seuil.
55.
Thompson, E.P. (1971) `The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth Century', Past and Present50: 76-136.
56.
Trial of Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal (1947) Vol. 20, Nuremberg.
57.
Turnbull, C. (1973) The Mountain People. London : Jonathan Cape.
58.
University of Strasbourg (1947) De l'université aux camps de concentration.Témoignages Strasbourgeois. Paris: Les Belles-Lettres.
59.
Vrba, R., with A. Bestic (1964) Escape from Auschwitz: I cannot forgive. New York: Grove Press.
60.
Weiner, A.B. (1976) Women of Value, Men of Renown: New Perspectives in Trobriand Exchange. Austin: University of Texas Press.
61.
Weiner, A.B. (1978) `The Reproductive Model in Trobriand Society', Mankind11(3).
62.
Weiner, A.B. (1980) `Reproduction: A Replacement for Reciprocity', American Ethnologist7(1).
63.
Weiner, A.B. (1985) `Inalienable Wealth', American Ethnologist12(2).
64.
Weiner, A.B. (1992) Inalienable Possessions. The Paradox of Keeping-While-Giving . Berkeley: University of California Press.
65.
White, S. (forthcoming) `Service for Fiefs or Fiefs for Service. The Politics of Reciprocity', in Gadi Algazi, Valentin Groebner and Bernhard Jussen (eds) Negotiating the Gift, papers presented at the colloquium Négocier le Don / Negotiating the Gift . Paris, December 1998. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
