Abstract
It is analytically shown that the origin of the magnetoelastic anisotropy term ΔK, previously established as specific of the polycrystalline state, is related to the product of the strong isotropic virtual "exchange stresses" due to the exchange striction by the anisotropic magnetostrictive deformation constrained by the neighboring grains. A linear law of the variation of ΔK versus the exchange-striction volume anomaly ΔVV is obtained for NiFe2 O4 and yttrium iron garnet. An analytical expression of ΔK(T) as a function of ionic structure parameters is established.