"‘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.

scholarly journals THE 1951 DIPLOMATIC GIFT: THE ROLE OF A GERMAN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY HANUKKAH LAMP IN ISRAELI-AMERICAN RELATIONS

ARTis ON ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 67-77
Author(s):  
Shir Kochavi
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Jewish People ◽  
The United States ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
The Gift ◽  
History Of

A diplomatic gift in the form of a Hanukkah Lamp, given to President Harry Truman by the Prime Minister of Israel, David Ben-Gurion in 1951 was selected for this occasion by museum personnel from the Bezalel Museum in Jerusalem and the Jewish Museum in New York. Based on primary sources found in archives in Israel and in the United States, this case study investigates the process of objects exchange between two museums, orchestrated on the basis of an existing collegial relationship, and illustrates how the Hanukkah Lamp becomes more than itself and signifies both the history of the Jewish people and the mutual obligations between the two nations. Drawing on the theories of Marcel Mauss, Arjun Appadurai, and Igor Kopytoff on the notion of the gift, the article highlights the layers of meanings attributed to a gifted object.

scholarly journals Knights Errant of the Distressed: Horace Walpole, Thomas Chatterton, and Eighteenth-Century Charitable Culture

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-97
Author(s):  
Andrew Rudd
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Literary Form ◽  
Gift Giving ◽  
Horace Walpole ◽  
Eighteenth Century Literature ◽  
Patron Saint ◽  
Good Samaritan ◽  
Century Literature

In this article, I examine how notions of charity shaped eighteenth-century literature. I begin by examining Horace Walpole’s philanthropy, which I argue belied his posthumous reputation for miserliness, and proceed to trace the theme of charity in Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto (1764), looking closely at the role of St. Nicholas, patron saint of gift-giving, who intervenes at crucial moments in the plot. I then reexamine Chatterton’s approach to Walpole in 1769 seeking patronage for his pseudo-medieval “Rowley” poems. Walpole’s infamous rejection stemmed in large part, I suggest, from his view that Chatterton, as a paid apprentice, was simply not entitled to a handout. Chatterton disagreed. A major revaluation of Chatterton’s “Rowley” poem, “An Excelente Balade of Charitie” (1769), follows. The poem, traditionally seen as a cry of despair, should rather be understood as a vigorous, indignantly satirical reworking of the Good Samaritan parable at Walpole’s expense. I conclude with reflections on how Walpole and Chatterton’s disagreement affected later ideas of charity for impoverished authors, and on the ways in which individual charitable practices might be said to influence literary form.

The Price of Friendship

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 117-136
Author(s):  
Maria Salomon Arel
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Gift Giving ◽  
Early Modern Europe ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Building Relationships ◽  
The Social ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
The Gift ◽  
Networks Of Support

Abstract This article discusses the gift-giving behaviour of English merchants involved in the Russia trade in the Muscovite era. Drawing on a small, but growing body of historical literature relating to the role of gifts in the cultivation of mutually beneficial relations between people across the social spectrum in early modern Europe, it explores the various ways in which the English deployed the practice of giving to their advantage, both in England and in Russia. In particular, as ‘strangers’ in Russia who operated beyond the parameters of traditional kin- and community-based networks of support, English merchants (and other foreigners, such as their Dutch competitors) needed to both ‘befriend’ Russian clients on the ground in every-day trade and nurture relationships in high places to ensure smooth, profitable, and secure business. As the sources reveal, they engaged in a variety of gift-giving behaviours in building relationships with Russians advantageous to their enterprise.

Generous corporations? A Maussian analysis of international drug donations

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Auriane Guilbaud
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Distribution System ◽  
Drug Market ◽  
Gift Giving ◽  
Object A ◽  
The Gift ◽  
Commercial Process ◽  
Pure Altruism ◽  
Drug Donations

In this article, I claim that using Marcel Mauss’ The Gift can prove fruitful in analyzing pharmaceutical donations, the role of interests in gift-giving, the complex intertwining of the domains of the gift and commerce, and in contributing to a theory of social justice. Drug donations refer to the practice of giving medicines “for free,” outside of the drug market, with the ultimate goal of reaching populations in need. So an object (a drug) otherwise sold on the market (even if sometimes at a subsidized price), and usually subject to a specific commercial process, enters a different circuit and distribution system. Yet, even if drug donations seem to break with the logic of exchange constitutive of the market, they are intimately linked to market dynamics. This is especially true in the case of corporate drug donations, because of the nature of the donor and the presence of ulterior motives. Accordingly, this practice can be explained with the help of a Maussian understanding of the gift, where gift-giving is not disinterested and does not have to result from pure altruism, but can very well be part of a larger process of accumulating wealth and power.

scholarly journals What should I do? The role of reciprocity and social norms on gift choices

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 26-52
Author(s):  
Daniel Modenesi Andrade ◽  
Lucia Salmonson Guimarães Barros
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Gift Giving ◽  
Web Based ◽  
The Gift ◽  
Gift Exchanges ◽  
Moderating Role ◽  
Shed Light

Objective: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how individuals resolve a conflict between reciprocity and social norms when choosing the price of a gift, and to investigate whether gift exchanges conducted in public or private and people’s appreciation for past gifts play a moderating role in this decision.Method: We ran two web-based survey experiments.Main results: Results showed that when people must choose between reciprocity and social norms, people tend to be reciprocal. However, there are some exceptional circumstances: people preferred to follow social norms when they received a cheaper gift in public, and when they were displeased with a prior expensive gift.Contributions: These findings help shed light onto how people make price decisions when choosing a gift.Relevance/Originality: Understanding price decisions in the gift-giving context is surprisingly an underexplored topic in the marketing literature.Managerial Implications: Understanding how people make price choices is important to practitioners. For instance, retailers can adjust their assortments to offer products across different price ranges, and sales people can make better offers to customers based on how much they are willing to spend.

scholarly journals Institutional analysis and the gift: an introduction to the symposium

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 665-674
Author(s):  
Stefan Kesting ◽  
Ioana Negru ◽  
Paolo Silvestri
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Third Sector ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Gift Giving ◽  
Fields Of Study ◽  
The Gift ◽  
State And Market ◽  
Methodological Approaches ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractHow can gift and gift-giving studies be relevant to the study of institutions and vice versa? This is the question we broadly address in the introduction to this symposium while drawing on the contributing articles and sketching out a possible future research in a perspective of integration between these two fields of study. Is the gift an institution? What types of methodological approaches would be most suitable in view of such integration? We define the gift as transfers underpinned by institutions, including customs and norms. We contend that the institutional thought can employ empirical and qualitative research methods used by anthropology and that there are important and fruitful lines of tension between gift-giving and institutions – from the relationship between freedom and obligation to the role of third sector between state and market – worthy of further research in the future.

Gift Giving at the Court of Henry VIII: the 1539 New Year's Gift Roll in Context

2005 ◽  
Vol 85 ◽  
pp. 126-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Hayward
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Gift Exchange ◽  
The Other ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
Henry Viii ◽  
Gift Giving ◽  
The Gift

The exchange of gifts at the New Year was a very significant social, political and financial event at the court of Henry VIII, just as it would have been at the courts of his English predecessors and European contemporaries. The process of gift exchange, including who made, received and gave gifts, was recorded each year in the gift roll. This article presents a detailed analysis of the 1539 gift roll, now in the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC, in the context of the other extant rolls for 1528, 1532 and 1534. Areas for discussion include a consideration of the range and significance of the gifts given and received by Henry and the role of the goldsmiths who made the king's gifts, including the weight, style and shape of the pieces commissioned. The article is supported by a full transcript of the 1539 gift roll, which is accompanied by extensive references comparing this gift roll to the other surviving gift rolls.

scholarly journals Personal values and gift giving act: a proposed connection

2020 ◽  
pp. 218-228
Author(s):  
Sérgio Cruz Passos ◽  
Ramon Silva Leite ◽  
Marcelo de Rezende Pinto
Keyword(s):  
Structural Equation Modeling ◽  
Least Squares ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Personal Values ◽  
Consumer Attitudes ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Gift Giving ◽  
Attitudes And Behaviors ◽  
The Gift

The consumption of gifts is relevant and many commerce sales are carried out during traditional times of gift-giving, such as Christmas. The objective of this paper is to propose and validate a model that measures the influence of personal values in the act of gift giving, also considering the role of gender in these relationships. A survey was carried out on 1,085 consumers. Through structural equation modeling with partial least squares (SEM-PLS), it was verified that the gift giving act is influenced by five personal values: self-direction, hedonism, tradition, achievement, and power. The results show that personal values can be used to predict the behavior of gifting. This study integrates Gift-Giving Theory and Personal Values Theory to better understand consumer attitudes and behaviors.

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