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Abstract

In this autoethnographic essay, I explore the role that gift exchange has played in building and sustaining my relationships with informants during my ethnographic research in Burma and its borderlands. I argue that gift exchange is not a byproduct of research but instead an integral part of it. Using Marcel Mauss's (1925/1954) seminal text The Gift as a theoretical framework, I weigh the items I've given against those I've received, detailing the emotional and material effects of this “potlatch” on social hierarchies, personal obligations, and shifting identities. This attempt to reckon with the ethical dimension of gift exchange is an invitation to other researchers to share their stories of giving and receiving.

Keywords

disciplines and their ethical codes qualitative research autoethnography Burma/Myanmar

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