Gift narration: dynamic themes of reciprocity, debt, and social relations in Theravada Buddhist Myanmar

Scholarly studies of Buddhist gift-giving have explored the many ways in which gifts are or are not reciprocal. This topic is revisited in this article by the author drawing greater attention to the practice of narration. Instead of understanding Buddhist words about dana as representing religious doctrines or the experience of its social practice, the author considers how Buddhists narrate dana as a means of maintaining relationships with self and others. Examining narratives of one monastic gift-recipient, meanings of dana and moral principles of gift-giving are shown to vary alongside shifting relations between givers and receivers. This case suggests that themes of reciprocity are most salient when narrators grapple with interpersonal threats. Offering possible interpretations of this correlation, the author argues how reciprocal forces could be external social conditions to which narratives respond as well as created ex nihilo through the practice of narration as a strategy of ordering interpersonal conflicts potentially unrelated to reciprocity.