Obfuscatory Relational Work and Disreputable Exchange

PWP-CCPR-2012-020

Abstract

This article develops a model for how the structure of exchange can accomplish relational work to manage such disreputable exchanges as the commensuration of sacred for profane. Whereas extant research has discussed rhetorical reframing of exchange, this paper suggests a more profound reconceptualization through structures that obfuscate that an exchange is occurring and thereby mitigate exchange taboos. The article develops three such exchange structures: bundling, brokerage, and gift exchange. Bundling uses cross-­‐subsidization across innocuous circuits to synthesize a taboo circuit. Brokerage finds a third party to accept responsibility for exchange. Gift exchange delays reciprocity and reframes exchanges as expressions of friendship. All three of these strategies have alternative meanings and so provide plausible deniability to taboo commensuration. The paper concludes by arguing that engaging in such structural “relational work” to evade taboos represents a synthesis of “nothing but” and “hostile worlds,” rather than an alternative to them as Zelizer suggests.