Bringing above quality items with you can reveal the barter quest, if present. Note that this means you may want to leave your masterworks broad knife you've spent a lot of time to get hold of at home and bring a fine knife with you instead when visiting villages (apart from knives, they can also desire arrows). I'm not aware of any other quest/mission that's triggered by items, but there are some missions that require other conditions to be met (such as being on friendly terms with the village, being a member of the same tribe, and being a member of a different tribe).