Gift-Giving as Social Capital: Changing Customs of Sahrawi Women's Gift Exchange in Laayoune

Since the seminal work of Marcel Mauss(1) on the social functions of gift-giving, anthropologists have held a long interest in the symbolic, economic, and social importance of gift exchange. Anthropologists working in the Maghreb and the Middle East have examined various ways that gift prestations and forms of reciprocity build social capital and prestige. This article draws on anthropological studies of reciprocity and hospitality in the wider region to consider changing customs of gift-giving for Sahrawi Arab communities in northwest Africa. Pressures have increased for women to provide higher value material goods and cash gifts at weddings and social occasions to maintain their social standing through a gift-giving practice among women known as tarzift. Moving from a communal expression of social solidarity toward a signifier of socioeconomic status in the contemporary wage labor economy, gift-giving has become an increasing source of financial and marital distress between Sahrawis women who manage reciprocal gift relationships and their husbands who financially support them. This shift may reflect wider social changes in the region, including the breakdown of tribal affiliation as the basis for exchange, increased involvement of women in household financial management, and loss of male status in the move from pastoral nomadism to sedentary, urban livelihoods.