Village Level Exchange: Lessons from South India

The phrase exchange relations refers to the social relations between people as they trade in goods and services. This chapter describes the use of a survey to study exchange. Some specific techniques and analytical improvements for future research on agrarian markets are suggested. An exchange relations approach to the study of markets directs attention not only to the goods being exchanged but also to the people, families and institutions that are exchanging them. The exchanges scrutinised are not limited to sales, but can include gifts, sharing, barter, loans, and intrahousehold transfers. Exchange relations are often contrasted to production relations. The latter refer to the social relations between the providers and the buyers of human labour, while the former can refer to the exchange of many other products including foods, fertilisers, luxury goods, services, and even consumer credit. The exchange relations approach allows ‘labour’ to be treated in special ways instead of being labelled simply as one among many commodities.