What Objects Mean, Second Edition by Berger Arthur Asa;

Author:Berger, Arthur Asa;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 4721529
Publisher: Routledge

The Law of Reciprocity and Gift Giving

The law of reciprocity is a central component of gift giving in most societies. From a sociological perspective, giving gifts is a means of initiating or maintaining social relationships; that is, gift giving has functions and requires of us a complex set of calculations. In an article, “The Christmas Gift Horse” (in A. A. Berger (ed.), About Man: An Introduction to Anthropology, 1974:82), Sheila Johnson draws upon French sociologist Marcel Mauss’s 1925 book, The Gift, to explain gift giving. She writes:

Aside from the basic decision to give a gift, which in itself may involve some delicate calculations, there are several other questions that must be settled. How much should it cost? Too expensive, and the recipient may be embarrassed or feel obligated to go out and buy you something equally costly; too cheap, and he might feel insulted. What sort of object should it be? A gift reflects the giver’s taste, but it can also reflect the impression the giver has formed of the recipient’s taste, providing more room for intended or unintended results…

The cardinal rule of gift-giving that lies behind these calculations is the principle of reciprocity…Reciprocity is what keeps social relationship on a more or less equal and friendly footing. A person who does not, or cannot, reciprocate is either signaling that he wants to end a friendly relationship or he puts himself in a socially subordinate position to the person from whom he accepts unilateral gifts.

We see, then, that giving the “right” gift to a person requires a great deal of speculation and can be fraught with peril. That explains why we often give people gifts of food or alcoholic beverages, since these gifts pose fewer problems in terms of our calculating what the right gift should be for the person to whom we are giving the gift. And they can be exchanged easily. The pressure to give gifts, and to give people the right gifts, is particularly strong during the Christmas period in many Western countries and leads to a great deal of anxiety and stress (sometimes financial, as well) among Christians (and many non-Christians, as well) who are involved with obligatory gift giving.

When we look for the mental attitudes and ideas expressed in gifts and objects in general, Malinowski would suggest that we are studying material culture the proper way. But “penetrating” the mindset of people is not easy to do, for as Freud has explained, many of our feelings and attitudes about objects are buried deep in our unconscious, and we are unaware of them. The example offered earlier by Dichter, about cigarette lighters, is an example of this. We can often learn about the meaning of our artifacts and possessions by examining our dreams about them and interpreting the myths and rituals that shape our behavior in curious ways. And we can also examine print advertisements and television commercials, which function like dreams and play an important role in shaping the way we think about objects and in persuading us to purchase them.

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