The Logic of the Gift

The Las Casas Institute in Oxford organised a symposium The Logic of the Gift on 12th December 2011. It was based around Catholic Social Teaching and in particular Pope Benedict XVI's 2009 Encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, which includes the term 'the logic of the gift'. A distinguished line up of theologians, philosophers, social scientists,  and people from the world of business were asked to contribute insights from within their own disciplines. For some reason (I'm not sure how my name came up as I'm not a Catholic, nor a specialist in economic anthropology) I was asked to talk about the issues from the perspective of social anthropology, being given the title by the organiser, Richard Finn OP, Gifts and Local Kinship: questions and insights from anthropology. It was an enjoyable day, with a fair amount of talking past as well as to each other, but always a pleasure and a challenge to be with people who care about what they are doing, and who try to connect their personal and academic lives.