Paper short abstract:

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.

Paper long abstract:

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.