{The course under this code is intended for MA level students. If a course is shared, BA students may register for the bachelor’s version of the course, identified by a course code beginning with “YB".}
This course invites students to analyse modes of gift exchange in pre-modern Europe. It seeks to de-romanticise
our contemporary idealised understanding of gift-giving as a purely altruistic practice. Thus, it will make use of
concepts from social and cultural anthropology and show how gift exchange functioned in societies in which
individuals were more vulnerable and more dependent on each other than today. It will draw studentsʼattention to
the so-called ego-documents as useful sources for tracing economic behaviour, including the practices and ideas
of gift exchange. We will ask, for example, how people communicated through gifts in the past, what steps they took
to forge fair exchange deals and cultivate more balanced relationships. We will explore what people donated most,
and in what ways their life stages and religious affiliations shaped their perceptions and practices of giving. We will
also look at past representations of greed and generosity (as concepts connected with gift exchange). This course
is also an invitation to learn more about underestimated gift-exchange related phenomena, such as as bribery or
hospitality.
Last update: Čapská Veronika, doc., Ph.D. (24.02.2026)
