Comment Alvi, A. & Werth, L. ‘Generosity as Ethics: The Double Transaction in Marcel Mauss’s The Gift’

‘Generosity as Ethics’ is an ambitious article that has the capacity to speak to fundamental understandings of an enduring anthropological concept. The argument is forceful, clear, and well-related to a discussion of cosmology and marriage in the authors’ research site. The anthropology of gifting has pored over the ethics of exchange for decades. However, it is stimulating to read a new article on a perennial topic, which claims to say something original. I think that the issues discussed here are the sort of thing that anthropologists should be talking about. For that reason, I am glad that the article is published. But I also think that the article requires a fuller demonstration of the basis and novel significance of the argument.