Gifts and gifting culture: Symbolism and dimensions By Mohamed Bouagina Abstract The purpose of this paper is to study the culture of gifting and gift-giving. By utilizing the social, personal and economic dimensions of gifts, this paper focuses on the motivations of givers and symbolic representation of gifts for them through the use of gift-giving literature as well as an exploratory study. Introduction The Studies of gift-giving have developed from a psychological, sociological and anthropological perspective and the discipline of each perspective has established a particular framework for studying gift-giving. The psychological approach for instance focuses on gift giving as an opportunity to express the giver's perception of both him/herself …show more content…
The inferential and implicit motives are connotative aspect of the gift, social bonds being by that created and reciprocation encouraged. The requirement to give might be ingrained in religious or moral necessities, with an obligation to recognize to maintain and establish social ties, or merely the expectation of reciprocal giving. These motives, which do not acknowledge purely selfless giving, become ingrained in the essence of society so that under appropriate conditions an individual is socially obligated to give gifts. The majority of gift exchanges that are intended to forge social bonds come about within the framework of ritualized occasions and special events, such as at birthdays or during religious celebrations (Cheal, 1988). These ritualized occasions usually play a high important role in maintaining established relationships (Bourdieu, 1986). Gift-gifting could be also used to reflect and maintain both social integration and social distance. The work of Mauss (1924) remains fundamental to contemporary interpretations of gift-giving and has revealed his own interpretation to gifts as he explained the act gifts giving according to the three forms of obligation; to give, to receive and to repay, it is reciprocity, or the sense of indebtedness, that guides the gift exchange system. Explicitly, it is the aspiration to achieve “balanced reciprocity”, the symmetry between giver and receiver achieved through role cancellation (Roberts, 1990). According to an assumed norm of reciprocity elaborated later by Gouldner, an individual is obliged to give, to receive, and to reciprocate (Gouldner, 1960). The imperative nature of the form of obligation derives from their cultural embeddedness . Mauss acknowledge gifts as total social facts. Building on this notion
Beneath the surface of orderliness and sameness in both communities lies an extensive network of social discipline. In The Giver, citizens are distributed spatially according to their stage of life. For example, the newborn children live together at the Nurturing Center, children and adults live together in families, and the oldest adults live together in the House of the Old. Also, the power structures control activities for a purpose to encourage those that are useful towards the society and those that are considered counterproductive. Therefore, children’s lives are tightly regulated by their defined jobs and participation in the...
In these two societies, they both are similar by having a strict government that does not let anyone leave the community but however, in The Giver no body...
However, both Folkways and Mores are the norms of a giving society at any giving time on just carry more punishable weight than the other, but both a created to be able to manage and maintain others in a giving
...a connection then prior almost a bonding of two families. As we get into the meaning behind certain practices and gifts we can see that they aren’t just for the future couple but many processes and meaning are behind them.
Generosity and trustworthiness are two personality traits that have a heavy correlation. There is evidence that trustworthiness can be proven to another person through acts of generosity. In the experiment described in this article, people are tested to see how trustworthy they are based on how generous they are in a given situation. The people in this experiment are given no reason to be generous, and their response will show how trustworthy they are. Ten sessions were given in which five people were recipients and five people were senders. They played a series of games that would determine how trustworthy and how generous they would be. The results were around 25 percent of the participants displayed generous traits during the games. A conclusion
Throughout the history of the world, there has been many societies. All these societies had similar structures and ideas, but they all are different by their own special traditions and ways of life. Similarly, both our society and the society in The Giver share similar ideas, but they are different in certain areas. For example, they both celebrate birthdays and have family units, but they have their own way of doing so. Based on the celebration of birthdays and the formation of family units, our society is better than the society in The Giver by Lois Lowry.
Even forms of human beings preforming selfless acts derives from ones desire to help others, which in a way makes that person feel importance. Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, better known as Mother Teresa, devoted her life to helping those in great need. To many these acts may appear as selfless and gallant acts that are not performed by anyone with any type of ego. Yet when taking a psychological look at why she performed such acts they may appear a somewhat more for herself. Every time anyone does anything, even when for someone else, they are doing it for some type of feeling that they experience. With the holiday season approaching, there will be a specific emphasis on giving unlike any other time of the year. We give yes to show gratitude for someone we love, but also to experience the joy in seeing someone enjoy something they them self-caused. Even while being selfless humans have the unique ability to still be doing something that involves caring for them self. This outlook toward the human condition completely debunks Wolf’s claim that “when caring about yourself you are living as if you are the center of the universe.” When choosing to do anything positive or negative, for others or for yourself, you are still taking your self-interest into consideration, making it
Jonas’ community chooses Sameness rather than valuing individual expression. Although the possibility of individual choice sometimes involves risk, it also exposes Jonas to a wide range of joyful experiences from which his community has been shut away. Sameness may not be the best thing in the community because Jonas expresses how much he feels like Sameness is not right and wants there to be more individuality. Giver leads him to understand both the advantages and the disadvantages of personal choice, and in the end, he considers the risks worth the benefits. “Memories are forever.”
accept the gifts from their children with no hesitation, how eager they are to compliment and
...esult, the more directly one sees their personal efforts impact someone else, the more happiness one can gain from the experience of giving. Sometimes generosity requires pushing past a feeling of reluctance because people all instinctively want to keep good things for themselves, but once one is over this feeling, they will feel satisfaction in knowing that they have made a difference in someone else’s life. However, if one lives without generosity but is not selfish, they can still have pleasure from other virtues.
Sherman, Amy L. “Expectant Giving.” The Christian Century 116.6 (1999): 206. Academic OneFile. Web. 1 Nov. 2013.
Generalized reciprocity is when exchanges are made that do not have a certain value. They are unequal at many times. These exchanges are usually gifts that are voluntarily given from kinsmen to kinsmen. The invoked notion that a transaction needs to be equal is repressed. An example of this kind of reciprocity is given by Mauss. Mauss states that generalized reciprocity were not only for marriage within the Samoans societies, but also with childbirth, funerals, and even puberty (Mauss 1963:8). In another society, the Japanese in Honolulu, Hawaii, generalized reciprocity had a different meaning depending on the recipients and givers. At a general level, gifts were given had meanings such as giving from the heart, think of others and they will think of you (Johnson 1974: 296). Among empirical level, usually formal functions such as weddings, funerals, births, and even graduations, the meanings of these gifts are keeping social networks.
The first name of this gift giver was Saint Nick, or Nicholas. Nicholas was born in turkey and he was one of the higher bishops. When Nicholas died a group of sailors who adored Nicholas to his bones to a sanctuary in Italy. His bones supplemented a female boon-giving deity, known as The Grandmother, who used to fill children's stockings with gifts. The Grandmother was ousted and there the Nicholas cult began. His followers began to give gifts to each other on the date of Nicholas' death, December 6. The cult spread north and was adopted by German and Celtic pagans. These groups worshipped the god Woden. Woden had a long white beard and rode a horse through the night skies in the autumn. When Nicholas merged with Woden her got rid of is Mediterranean clothing, rescheduled his flight for December and wore heavy winter clothing. The Roman Catholic adopted the cult and taught that we should give out gifts during December. So now you know the origins of one the most famous Christian holidays on the earth. But according to what we just read, the roots of these traditions aren't very Christian, but instead and pagan. The church leaders of old saw these customs and twisted them so they'd be Christian but still be the same custom. If someone ever says that Christmas is a very Christian religion you can tell them
In Mere Christianity, Lewis describes the original meaning of charity as mush wider than a modern meaning of Charity which is giving “alms.” He says that, “it is not a state of the feeling but a state of the will” (Lewis 129). Generally, people o...
...motions involved and stated that when it comes to the action of gift receiving and gift giving “receivers have beliefs about the action the giver will take and givers have beliefs about the action the receivers expect” (p. 400). He further mentioned that emotions such as surprise, disappointment, pride and embarrassment arise from comparing the recipient’s ex ante expectations with the ex post physical outcome. Further studies relate the concept of gift giving behavior with the attributes of the Four ‘S’s’: suspense, surprise, sacrifice and sharing (Clarke, 2007). On the other hand, studies have been done on the experience of gift giving of souvenirs and the insights it offers to shared consumption of tourism activities with significant others (Clarke, 2008). However, no specific study has been done on the relation of emotions and souvenir purchasing specifically.