Gifts Bespeak Relationships
By Kristopher A. Nelson
in
March 2007
200 words / 1 min.
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One of the specific narrative methods of establishing community, of creating and maintaining shared world-views, is gift exchange. In contrast to the exchange of commodities, the exchange of gifts establishes enduring connections between people. It is the cardinal difference between gift and commodity exchange that a gift establishes a feeling-bond between two people, while the […]
Please note that this post is from 2007. Evaluate with care and in light of later events.
One of the specific narrative methods of establishing community, of creating and maintaining shared world-views, is gift exchange. In contrast to the exchange of commodities, the exchange of gifts establishes enduring connections between people.
It is the cardinal difference between gift and commodity exchange that a gift establishes a feeling-bond between two people, while the sale of a commodity leaves no necessary connection.
— Lewis Hyde, p. 56
A gift, then, presented and represented within a narrative framework, works to establish a community within which more gifts are given and more narratives (re)constructed. It is this very circularity — for the “gift not only moves, it moves in a circle” (Lewis Hyde, p. 11) — of enduring gift relationships which serves so well to generate and maintain community.