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Drawing on theories of materialization and performance, this paper discusses gift-giving as an expansive form of materializing relationships and delimiting boundaries between regions, organisations and individuals in the wake of migration.
Drawing on theories of materialization and performance, this paper discusses gift-giving as an expansive form of materializing relationships and delimiting boundaries between nations, regions, organisations and individuals in the wake of migration. Initially, I discuss gift-giving as a way of materializing relationships and building networks. Thereafter, I map out the social life of the Värmland Gift to America, a collection donated by the Värmland province in Sweden to the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis in 1952. I suggest the coinage of "heritage gift" as a means of describing gifts with dense biographies which contain and enact multiple performances that create and recreate the idea of gift-giving in its role as an activity that binds people together. The example of the Värmland gift shows how such a heritage gift kept on the move over time involves a series of performances which have fostered dynamic transatlantic relationships for over fifty years.