“Ayudas y bendiciones”. reciprocidad y economía moral en un barrio de Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Abstract

The article is an ethnographic exploration of the representations and operation of social assistance in an impoverished urban neighborhood of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. It analyzes how its inhabitants produce multiple meanings, moralities, and social relationships around a Spanish Catholic NGO that provides them with financial and social assistance. It purports that these meanings, moralities, and social relationships are the central axis of a subaltern reciprocity system which, in turn, creates different forms of subjectivity, social bonds, and obligations. I probe into the connection between reciprocity, moral economy, and agency to transcend academic approaches that restrict popular political action to domination or resistance. Finally, I also propose that the role of religious organizations in contexts of great inequality is not limited to the old charity model.