What’s the Point of Holiday Gifts?

Gift exchanges can help build a network of ritual bonds between families.

Unlike ordinary behaviors, ritual actions are nonutilitarian. This is part of what makes them special.

Gift exchanges may seem wasteful and impractical. But as social scientific research reveals, the costs and benefits of gift-giving aren’t what they seem.During his fieldwork in Papua New Guinea, anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski documented an elaborate tradition practiced by the Massim people. These island communities maintained a complex ceremonial exchange system that revolved around the gifting of shell necklaces and shell armbands.

This hardly seems like an efficient use of time and resources. But anthropologists realized that the Kula was instrumental in cultivating human connection.; they came with the expectation of repayment in the future. But on the whole, they served to create a cycle of mutual responsibilities, resulting in a network of reciprocal relationships encompassing the entire community.Similar exchanges exist in societies around the world.

Looking at it through the lens of cold logic, the practice seems wasteful. Everyone has to pay for someone else’s stuff. Some gifts end up going unused or returned. If no one gave presents, everyone might be better off spending their money and time according to their own needs and desires.

xygalatas That's very true, giving provides much joy than receiving..

xygalatas I don’t NEED material items, I’m trying to stop myself from committing suicide. I’m so unhappy 😞 right now and only my mother is texting me.

xygalatas For me, gifts represent a kind of gift of oneself for the other... and thus the one who receives it feels considered and freed from any feeling of loneliness... he thus embraces more easily the gift of the other and can give himself in return by a gift

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