Everyday Exchanges: Interaction and the Making of Market Life in Nabatieh’s Monday Souq

Abstract

This thesis explores exchange beyond the distinction between gift and commodity, which often separates economic transactions from social and moral life. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in the Monday Souq of Nabatieh, it approaches exchange as a lived, relational practice shaped by everyday interactions between sellers and customers and embedded in wider social and moral worlds. Methodologically grounded in participant observation, this research contributes to anthropological discussions of exchange, locality, and the figure of the stranger. Through close attention to ordinary interactions, the thesis argues that the meaningfulness of the Monday Souq lies partly in the complex social life that unfolds through exchange.