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Rethinking saving: Indian ceremonial gifts as relational and reproductive saving

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  • Isabelle Guérin
  • Govindan Venkatasubramanian
  • Santosh Kumar

Abstract

Economic anthropology has long advocated a broader vision of savings than that proposed by economists. This article extends this redefinitional effort by examining ceremonial gifts in India and arguing that they are a specific form of savings. Rural households, including those at the bottom of the pyramid, do save, in the sense of storing, accumulating and circulating value. But this takes place via particular forms of mediation that allow savers to forge or maintain social and emotional relations, to keep control over value – what matters in people’s lives – and over spaces and their own future. We propose terming these practices relational and reproductive saving, insofar as their main objective is to sustain life across generations. By contrast, trying to encourage saving via bank mediation may dispossess populations of control over their wealth, their socialisation, their territories and their time. In an increasingly financialised world of evermore aggressive policies to push people into financial inclusion, the social, symbolic, cultural and political aspects of diverse forms of financial mediation deserve our full attention.

Suggested Citation

  • Isabelle Guérin & Govindan Venkatasubramanian & Santosh Kumar, 2020. "Rethinking saving: Indian ceremonial gifts as relational and reproductive saving," Journal of Cultural Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(4), pages 387-401, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:jculte:v:13:y:2020:i:4:p:387-401
    DOI: 10.1080/17530350.2019.1583594
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    Cited by:

    1. Heyer, Judith, 2022. "Agriculture in a Diversifying Economy – Village Studies Perspective," Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, vol. 0(Number 1), March.
    2. Isabelle Guérin & Vincent Guermond & Nithya Joseph & Nithya Natarajan & Govindan Venkatasubramanian, 2021. "COVID‐19 and the Unequalizing Infrastructures of Financial Inclusion in Tamil Nadu," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 52(4), pages 927-951, July.
    3. Hadrien Saiag, 2020. "Consumer Credit and Debt," Post-Print halshs-03095993, HAL.
    4. Isabelle Guérin & Sébastien Michiels & Arnaud Natal & Christophe Jalil Nordman & Govindan Venkatasubramanian, 2020. "Surviving debt, survival debt in times of lockdown," Working Papers CEB 20-009, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    5. Isabelle Guérin & Arnaud Natal & Christophe Jalil Nordman & Govindan Venkatasubramanian, 2024. "For Money Can’t Buy Me Love? The Political Economy of Marriages Over Two Decades in Tamil Nadu, South India," Working Papers DT/2024/07, DIAL (Développement, Institutions et Mondialisation).
    6. Ståle Wig, 2024. "Infrabanking: Mobilizing capital in communist Cuba," Economic Anthropology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(1), pages 59-70, January.

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