Gift and Exchange in the Reciprocal Regime of the Miskito on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua, 20th Century

Abstract: This dissertation is a historical-comparative analysis of a conflict that has developed in the economic system of the Miskito in the 20th century, concerning the use of common property resources. The study is based on empirical material collected in a Miskito/Creole village on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua in the 1990s. During the enclave period (1860-1960) Miskito men earned money as wage labourers at foreign companies (lumber, mining and banana plantations), and sent home money and purchased goods to women, who worked in subsistence agriculture. At this time the communal resources were reserved mainly for subsistence and food gifts. This permitted a symbolic transformation of money and purchased goods, which were distributed in a wider network of kin-related women. There was a relatively stable coexistence of short-term exchange and long-term gift, which is referred to as a reciprocal regime. However, the transition to the commercial period (1960-) resulted in a commercial exploitation of communal resources, which seriously started to compete with subsistence and the custom of food gifts in the 1970s. A contradiction developed between short-term exchange and long-term gift, which stems from a double and contradictory coding of communal resources. This development was interrupted during the 1980s - the decade of the Sandinist revolution - but continued in the 1990s, although new aspects were added due to increasing population pressure, external exploitation and few opportunities for wage labour. In spite of instabilities in the reciprocal regime, the analysis suggests that there could be a conflictual coexistence of gift and exchange, which is potentially creative for the future.