On the Talmudic Prohibition against Giving Gifts to Gentiles

1995 ◽  
Vol 29 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 95-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanina Ben-Menahem
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Primary Factor ◽  
Gift Giving ◽  
The Gift ◽  
Social Account ◽  
Social Intercourse

Examination of the institution of the gift in the Talmud reveals that giving gifts to Gentiles is prohibited. The prohibition is generally believed to be motivated by the desire to restrict social intercourse between Jews and Gentiles. Gift-giving, it is argued, might lead to, or indicate the existence of, overly-close social relations. On this understanding of the institution, then, it is the potential consequences of the gift-giving that are problematic, rather than the act itself. I will argue that this social account of the origin of the prohibition is unsatisfactory, and that while social considerations did play a role, to regard the inhibition of fraternization with Gentiles as the sole or primary factor underlying the prohibition is a facile oversimplification. Further, I will argue that the explanation for the prohibition must be sought in the act itself, rather than in its consequences.

scholarly journals Potlatch, absolute hospitality and metaphorization in constructing socioeconomic intercultural reality

2021 ◽  
Vol 125 ◽  
pp. 01004
Author(s):  
Andrey Yakovlevich Bolshunov ◽  
Sofia Andreevna Bolshunova ◽  
Aleksandra Sergeevna Proskurina ◽  
Aleksander Georgievich Tyurikov
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Social Integration ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Economic Activity ◽  
The Other ◽  
Gift Giving ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
The Gift ◽  
Points Of View ◽  
The One

The article reveals and substantiates the following thesis: the “economy of trust” exists exclusively in the context and sphere of specific social relations named potlatch. Potlatch is a traditional gift-giving feast that taken place among the natives of North America. Nowadays there are two points of view on the phenomenon of potlatch. On the one hand, potlatch is claimed to be a reckless waste. On the other hand, it is considered as a clear illustration of trust integration. At this point, the gift-giving process introduces the phenomenon of “absolute hospitality”, the embodiment of which is the trust-based space of social integration. Absolute hospitality presupposes the free economic activity of the guest, which is based on unlimited trust and conditioned by nothing. The economy of trust can exist only in such space. Narrativization and metaphorization are essential features of gift-giving space and socio-economic relations developed in it. These are the main forms of construction and interpretation such spaces and relations.

scholarly journals The gift of repentance: a Maussian perspective on twenty years of pentimento in Italy

2001 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 297-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
DAVID MOSS
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
The Political ◽  
Central Feature ◽  
Gift Giving ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Gift

The influence of Marcel Mauss' study The Gift has largely been confined to the study of the circulation of goods and the social relations in which their transfer is embedded. One of Mauss' principal aims, however, was to show the political importance of gift-giving in averting the recourse to violence. In this paper, his approach to the offering, receiving and reciprocating of gifts is used to analyse the phenomenon of pentimento – the exchange of confessions for reduced sentences by terrorists and mafiosi which has become a central feature of the effort to combat organised violence in Italy since 1980.

"‘A Peculiar Gift of Providence": The Power-Imbalance Caused by Gift-Giving in Millenium Hall

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisia Snyder
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Power Imbalance ◽  
Gift Giving ◽  
The Gift

Sarah Scott's eighteenth-century novel Millenium Hall canvasses the role of gift-giving in the dynamics heteronormative-domestic, economic, and spiritual relationships. The pharmakon of the gift plays a central role in Scott's understanding of philanthropy, and the construction of her female-inhabited, female-run utopia. This article's principle occupation is to show that all instances of gift-giving in Millenium Hall create power-imbalances between the superior giver and the inferior receiver; however, Sarah Scott's female utopia constructs the most preferable type of subservience.

Rembrandt, Vermeer, and the Gift in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Zell
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Gift Exchange ◽  
Gift Giving ◽  
Dutch Art ◽  
Dutch Golden Age ◽  
Symbolic Economy ◽  
The Gift ◽  
New Perspective

This book offers a new perspective on the art of the Dutch Golden Age by exploring the interaction between the gift's symbolic economy of reciprocity and obligation and the artistic culture of early modern Holland. Gifts of art were pervasive in seventeenth-century Europe and many Dutch artists, like their counterparts elsewhere, embraced gift giving to cultivate relations with patrons, art lovers, and other members of their social networks. Rembrandt also created distinctive works to function within a context of gift exchange, and both Rembrandt and Vermeer engaged the ethics of the gift to identify their creative labor as motivated by what contemporaries called a love of art

Male mate choice favors more colorful females in the gift-giving cabbage butterfly

2014 ◽  
Vol 68 (9) ◽  
pp. 1539-1547 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natasha Tigreros ◽  
Monica A. Mowery ◽  
Sara M. Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Male Mate Choice ◽  
Gift Giving ◽  
Cabbage Butterfly ◽  
The Gift ◽  
Male Mate

scholarly journals On the ratio of “gift” to “gift-giving” categories

2019 ◽  
pp. 79-84
Author(s):  
V. O. Riadinska ◽  
Yu. O. Kostenko
Keyword(s):  
Market Price ◽  
Civil Code ◽  
Gift Giving ◽  
Economic Costs ◽  
The Gift ◽  
Costs Of Production ◽  
The Relationship

The article analyzes the relationship between the concepts of “gift” and “gift-giving” as categories of modern legislation of Ukraine. It is noted that although the etymological meaning of the words “gift” and “giftgiving” is equal, the legislator uses these concepts as different categories; in various normative acts either gives them different definitions or operates with these two categories as synonyms. Comparing the signs of a gift and a gift-giving, it is determined that a gift can be provided both free of charge and for a fee, but at a price lower than the minimum market price. In the context of gift and gift-giving features, the ratios of “minimum market price” and “symbolic amount” are investigated. It is justified that the minimum market price is less than the market price, but it takes into account the economic costs of production and sale of goods and the minimum profit, while the symbolic price is formed by the prevailing in the society and concerns the free transfer of things. The ratio of “gift” and “gift-giving” categories in the civil and anticorruption legislation is formulated and its features are defined: 1) the concept of “gift-giving” (Civil Code of Ukraine) is narrower than the concept of “gift” (Law of Ukraine “On Prevention of Corruption”); 2) the main feature of giving is that the gift is free of charge, and the “gift” may be given at a price lower than the minimum market price, while the “symbolic fee” is a category that differs from the category of “price lower than the minimum market price”; 3) the decision to accept “gift-giving” depends on the person who is being presented, but the special subject can accept “gift” only if he or she is permitted by the anti-corruption legislation and is obliged to refuse it and implement a set of appropriate measures in case he or she is prohibited or restricted; 4) the categories “gift-giving” and “gift” are not identical, but when a special subject receives “gifts” from close people, they are “gift-giving”. Keywords: gift, gift-giving, anti-corruption legislation, special subject, minimum market price.

scholarly journals The Gift of Qurbani Meat: Ethnological Reflections

Illuminatio ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 162-209
Author(s):  
Ugo Vlaisavljević
Keyword(s):  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
Social Bonds ◽  
Gift Giving ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Gift ◽  
Close Relatives ◽  
The Sacrifice

The article considers two customs traditionally followed by Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegovina during Eid Al-Aḍḥā (‘Festival of Sacrifice’ or Kurban Bayram). These are, first, giving a small amount of money, so-called bayramlık, to children as a reward or gift in return for handing out Qurbani meat to neighbors, and, second, giving the meat to non-Muslims. The topic will be explored in the light of Marcel Mauss’s seminal essay on the gift, since Qurbani appears as a gift that identifies, marks and renews the social bonds not only of close relatives, but also of friends and neighbors. In this context too, we will meet what Jacques Derrida calls the aporia of the gift. The slaughtering of Qurbani animal is a true gift, precisely because it is an impossible gift. It may be considered as a giftless giving: although the sacrifice is unthinkable without the slaughtered animal, it cannot be a gift to God. However, after the human act of sacrifice is performed, it is God Who makes the gift to men - because He commands that the victim’s meat must be shared. It is then to be understood not as a returned gift, but as an act of God’s hospitality, which gives to men the very possibility of gift giving. It is argued that the two Bosnian customs draw their ultimate meaning from the divine hospitality vividly experienced in the ritual of sacrifice.

The Gift of Psychological Closeness: How Feasible Versus Desirable Gifts Reduce Psychological Distance to the Giver

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 360-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
SoYon Rim ◽  
Kate E. Min ◽  
Peggy J. Liu ◽  
Tanya L. Chartrand ◽  
Yaacov Trope
Keyword(s):  
Interpersonal Relationships ◽  
Social Exchange ◽  
Psychological Distance ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Gift Giving ◽  
The Gift ◽  
Shed Light

Gift-giving is a common form of social exchange but little research has examined how different gift types affect the psychological distance between giver and recipient. We examined how two types of gifts influence recipients’ perceived psychological distance to the giver. Specifically, we compared desirable gifts focused on the quality of the gift with feasible gifts focused on the gift’s practicality or ease of use. We found that feasible (vs. desirable) gifts led recipients to feel psychologically closer to givers (Studies 1-4). Further clarifying the process by which receiving a desirable versus feasible gift affects perceived distance, when recipients were told that the giver focused on the gift’s practicality or ease of use (vs. the gift’s overall quality), while holding the specific features of the gifts constant, they felt closer to the gift-giver (Study 5). These results shed light on how different gifts can influence interpersonal relationships.

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