In his seminal essay, The Gift, Mauss attempted to unravel the common principles running through gift exchange practices in societies which he termed ‘archaic’—Melanesia, Poly- nesia and the Pacific Northwest (Mauss 1990). According to Mauss and his successors, gift exchange as practised in these societies was characterised by two major elements that are intertwined: the obligatory transfer of the ob- ject and the inalienability of the object. Firstly, the giver and the receiver of ‘archaic’ gifts are bound by a moral obligation to give, receive and repay, although these acts may be spontaneously fulfilled or performed with the attitude of generosity. It is well known that Mauss singled out the obligation to repay as the most important obligation, as it acts as a hinge for propagating the circuit of gift-giving. Secondly, the object transferred through this kind of gift exchange is inalienable. In Mauss’s term, ‘to make a gift of something to someone is to make a present of some part of oneself’ (1990: 16). The objects given are typically the important substance and being of the indi- vidual and/or group. Even after being given away, they still bear the ‘stamp of those who possessed it previously’ (Carrier 1994: 25). According to Weiner and Godelier, they are ‘inalienable possessions’, which cannot com- pletely be alienated; the original owner retains inalienable ownership (Godelier 1999; Weiner 1992). Mauss’s exposition of the ‘archaic’ gift provides us with an important platform for an anthropological investigation on organ trans- plantation. This is because, as an internal part of the body, human visceral organs resist the dichotomy of the ‘person’ and the ‘thing’ and appear to be ‘part of the person’ as well as part of the body. The aim of this paper is to consider living- related donor kidney transplantation in the Philippines in the light of the anthropological Repaying and Cherishing the Gift of Life: Gift Exchange and Living-related Kidney Transplantation in the Philippines Yosuke Shimazono ABSTRACT: This paper considers living-related kidney transplantation, especially that between family members in the Philippines. Drawing on the anthropological theory of gift, it explores two aspects of the gift relationship—the relationship between the do- nor and the recipient and the relationship between the recipient and the object—and describes two categories of acts—‘acknowledging the debt/repaying the gift of life’ and ‘taking care of a kidney/cherishing the gift’. This paper seeks to show that there is an internal tension in live kidney transplantation between two rival principles of gift operative in the world of Filipino family and kinship: one akin to the Maussian or ‘ar- chaic’ gift and the other that places cherishing of the gift over repaying of the debt. KEYWORDS: ‘archaic’ gift exchange, family, gift, kidney transplantation, Marcel Mauss, Philippines Anthropology in Action, 15, 3 (2008): 34–46 © Berghahn Books and the Association for Anthropology in Action doi:10.3167/aia.2008.150304