Why Do Anthropologists Study Gift Giving - 1682 Words

Why study Gifts? The anthropology of gifts has been mostly studied in the context of non-Western cultures. The important roles of gift giving were highlighted by classical anthropologists such as Malinowski, Mauss and Levi-Strauss. They stressed the significance of reciprocity and obligation suggested in gift exchange and that gift giving is a one practice of material expression that integrates a society. Gift giving is essential to the studies of many anthropological debates such as sociability, alienation, sacrifice, religion and kinship. The anthropology of gifts is also crucial to economics. Entire businesses and industries rely on gift giving as it helps understand the relationships in economy as a cultural system that is not just†¦show more content†¦from friends and charities, and as such I personally believe there is no such thing as a free gift. Reciprocity is very important in Pakistani communities. As covered in A. Shaw’s ‘A Pakistani Community in Britain,’ the term lena-dena literally means ‘taking and giving’ and itself implies the obligation of exchange. In Pakistani communities, the receiver will write a note of what they were given so they can return a similar gift. However, the returned gift must be worth slightly more. The idea is not to close the debt, but to create a further one and continue the relationship; this is how a lena-dena is inherited. Similar to a Kula partner, a lena-dena partner can be anybody in the Pakistani community that you wish to have a bond with, indeed even an English woman that may have married into the family. As gifts are given on occasions such as birthdays, dinner parties etc, the gift exchange can occur over a long period of time. Religious events, such as khatmi-Qur’an also calls for an occasion of lena-dena, as well as weddings, in which the bride’s family can expect all of their gifts to be in return of gifts given in lena-dena. There is also an amount of prestige involved; the gifts received in a wedding are displayed in a ledger for guests to look through to indicate the family’s standing among its friends andShow MoreRelatedEating Christmas in the Kalahari906 Words   |  4 PagesThe sources of cultural misunderstanding made by the anthropologists in the readings from Spradley and McCurdy are affected by many factors including naive realism, culture shock and fully understanding what is culturally and ethically appropriate. Naive realism is the belief that people see the world in the same way, and culture shock is a condition of confusion and feelings of loneliness and anxiety experienced by someone suddenly entering a new culture. 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