Sociology of Giving
First Edition
- Helmuth Berking - Free University Berlin, Germany
September 1999 | 176 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
We all give and receive gifts. But few of us reflect on the risks and uncertainties inherent to this form. For example, to give means to acquire power, to effect a symbolic exchange, to initiate ties and alliances, to convey social messages to others and to classify our own status. Gift-giving is also a device to register honour and shame, to show solidarity, to equalize and to create intimacy.
This fascinating volume looks at the ambivalence of gift-giving; contemporary gift-giving, its motives, occasions and its rules; examines `sacrifice', `food-sharing' and `gift-giving' as those basic institutions upon which symbolic orders of `traditional' society rely; and considers the historical invention of hospitality, paving the way to an analysis of the anthropology of giving. Berking explores the transition from traditional society to the market self-interest form, sketching a moral economy beyond the rationale of the market-place and a world caught in the grip of competitive possessive individualism.
PART ONE: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF GIFT-GIVING
Motives
Occasions
Emotional Norms
PART TWO: TOWARDS AN ANTHROPOLOGY OF GIVING
The Gift
The Sacrifice
Distribution of the Sacrifice
Attributions
PART THREE: TRANSITIONS
Ideal Constructions
Beyond Necessity
PART FOUR: MORALITY AND SOCIETY
Individualization and the Common Welfare
The Solidarity of Individualism