SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This essay, part of a wider forthcoming publication, discusses the general principles and the underlying cosmology upon which gift-giving in central Sardinia rests. Gift-sending (imbiatu) is presented as a « total social fact » reflecting the key role it plays in community life and the motivating force behind « being and belonging ». If tradition (su connotu), including customary law – often in opposition to state law – has resulted in delivering the « code of vendetta barbaricina », it has also stimulated a gift-giving system (imbiatu) which positively complements the ethical but « inconclusive » code of vendetta. This « archaic » system is not necessarily anti-modern, anti-rational and pre-logic, as some psychologists, psychiatrists and criminologists have tended to underline. On the contrary, the common tradition which supports both gift-sending and the code of vendetta accentuates the role of women as gift-givers who choose life over death and vendetta