Favors and “normal heroes”
Favors and “normal heroes”
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恩惠和“普通英雄”
DOI：
10.14318/hau2.2.003
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发表时间：
2012
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
C. Humphrey
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
C. Humphrey
本文重新思考了在有关后社会主义社会的文献中流行的“恩惠经济”一词，它是贿赂、回扣、裙带关系等各种非法行为的简称。本文认为，可以从人类学的角度单独挑选恩惠并单独考虑恩惠。在主要以其他方式（根本不是恩惠的方式）进行的经济体中，恩惠是存在的。该论文根据来自俄罗斯和蒙古的材料表明，恩惠与交易交换不同。它们的定义是无偿的，并且要求接收者是个人选择的。由于这些都不是市场经济实践的特征，文献中的恩惠往往被描述为非正式的、腐败的等，但这里的建议是，恩惠之所以持续存在，是因为它们使行为者能够在相关社会圈子内增强自我价值感；在这样的生活世界中，他们是“普通英雄”的尊重之源。通过分析高等教育领域的恩惠，本文还指出，在日益商业化和权力分化的环境中恩惠的实际运作也有助于理解社交网络是如何形成的。
This paper reconsiders the expression “economy of favors” that became popular in the literature about postsocialist societies as shorthand for a variety of illicit practices such as bribery, kickbacks, nepotism, etc. It argues that favors can be singled out and considered in their own right from an anthropological point of view. Favors are carried out in economies that are mainly conducted in other ways—ways that are not favors at all. The paper suggests, based on materials from Russia and Mongolia, that favors are different from transactional exchanges. They are defined by their quality of gratuitousness and by the fact that they require the recipients to be personally chosen. Because neither of these are features of market economic practice, favors tend to be described in the literature as informal, corrupt, etc., but the suggestion here is that favors persist because they enable actors to enhance a sense of self-worth within relevant social circles; they are sources of esteem for “normal heroes” in such life-worlds. Analyzing favors in the sphere of higher education, the paper also suggests that practical operation of favors in an increasingly commercialized and power-differentiated environment is also helpful for understanding how social networks are formed.