Why Do Anthropologists Study Gift Giving?

Why study Gifts? The anthropology of talents has been mostly studied in the context of use of non- westerly cultures. The important roles of gift bragging(a) 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 adept practice of material expression that integrates a society. Gift giving is essential to the studies of many anthropological debates such as sociability, alienation, sacrifice, religious belief 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 trade based. Moreover, it plays a part in the understanding of how people perpetrate in each other, as well as comprehending the increment of major economies, such as China. Malinowski wrote of the Kula Ring in his Argonauts of the Western Pacific(1922). This exchange of gifts was half ceremonial, half commercial. Twice annually, the inhabitants of the Trobiand islands result visit other islands to give gifts, barter and celebrate. The islanders aim to acquire, as well as give, to their special Kula-exchange partners.

They exchange armlets of white shells and necklaces of ablaze(p) shells. These shells are carried from island to island in a ring, the necklaces in one counselling and the armlets in the other, in a continual ring called Kula. Kula items afford no financial value; they are merely for demonstrate and reputation. So, how does this study benefit western society? And what does it tell us of foreign concepts? Malinowski compared the Kula to the meridian Jewels, though in my opinion the Crown Jewels are worth a lot of money, one would requirement these for their value and not just their symbolic status, so I would compare the exchange more to a trophy, which the winner keeps until the near competition (i.e., football) and then the... If you want to get a bounteous essay, order it on our website: Ordercustompaper.com

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