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Sociology of Giving
Contributor(s): Berking, Helmuth (Author)

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 ISBN: 0761956492     ISBN-13: 9780761956495
Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd
OUR PRICE: $77.90  

Binding Type: Paperback - See All Available Formats & Editions
Published: September 1999
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Annotation: 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.

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Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Social Science | Sociology - General
- Social Science | Popular Culture
Dewey: 302
LCCN: 99070887
Series: Published in Association with Theory, Culture & Society
Physical Information: 0.47" H x 6.34" W x 9.16" L (0.68 lbs) 176 pages
Features: Bibliography, Index
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
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

Contributor Bio(s): Berking, Helmuth: - Helmuth Berking is Assistant Professor in Sociology at the Free University, Berlin.
 
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