Gift-Giving in Japan
Subtitle: Cash, Connections, Cosmologies
Edition: 1 edition
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: June 10, 2003
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 264
ISBN-13: 9780804747042
Subjects: Customs; Social & cultural anthropology; Sociology; Japan; Ethnic Studies - General; Social Science; Social life and customs; National characteristics, Japa; Asia - General; Customs & Traditions; Social Science / Customs & Traditions; General; Ceremonial exchange; Gifts; National characteristics, Japanese
First sentence: In Japan, as in many other parts of the world, the giving of gifts is extremely important.
Description: "Gift-giving is extremely important in Japanese society, not only at personal and household levels, but at the national and macroeconomic levels as well. This book is the first in English to document the extraordinary scale, complexity, and variation of giving in contemporary Japan." "Recent anthropological interest in drawing a strong contrast between commodities and gifts both reflects and reinforces the conception of the gift as part of the giver and the related distinction between the realm of the gift and the realm of the marketplace. The author argues that Japanese practices of giving and receiving challenge assumptions related to this idea of the gift."--Jacket.