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This paper examines the signifying mechanism of gift-giving in ancient China from the perspective of semiotic rhetoric, aiming to answer the question of what can be regarded as li (roughly meaning ceremony, rite, courtesy, or gift) or, in other words, how the social meaning of gifts is constructed in giving semiosis. It describes four dominant rhetorical devices that existed in ritual and non-ritual gift exchanges in ancient China. The ritual gift tended to adopt simile and conceit as its meaning-construction device, becoming a symbolic good beyond 'thingness' and thus fulfilling the sociocultural function of ritual. Non-ritual giving activity made use of semiotic metonymy and synecdoche as a strategy of 'indirectness' to maintain the relationship between the giver and receiver in daily communications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to advance the joyful environmental ethic of Robin Wall Kimmerer. According to Kimmerer's environmental ethic of gratitude and reciprocity, each person has a responsibility to share their unique gifts with the world in return for the gifts they have received from nature. Drawing on Karen Barad, this paper contends that nonhumans are active, open-ended, and relational singularities that also provide ontological gifts by coconstituting the very being of humans and the world. Since sharing one's gifts to make good gifts for a nonhuman requires knowing oneself and the nonhuman, this paper argues that openended curiosity is an onto-epistemic, environmental virtue because it enables humans to understand nonhumans as openended and relational singularities. Epistemically, a person must be open to transforming their beliefs and questions in relation to nonhumans. Ontologically, a person must be open to transforming their bodies, practices, and world in relation to nonhumans. To develop this account of open-ended curiosity, this paper engages the work of Vinciane Despret. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Philosophy, Culture & Political Science is the property of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Close-kin ownership, to own one's kin, has been researched from the perspective of emancipatory strategies or economic exploitation, hereby overlooking the complexity of kinship bonds in slave societies. This paper addresses the complexities of slavery and kinship and analyses close-kin ownership from the perspective of kinship. In the process of manumission, relationships of obligation were created that continued in life after slavery. When former-owner and enslaved were kin, a layering of obligations took place that extended beyond the widely accepted dichotomy of viewing close-kin ownership as either an emancipatory strategy or economic exploitation. To analyse these concepts and relationships 44 examples of close-kin ownership were selected from a database of 392 manumission petitions from Suriname. In these 44 examples, kin owned enslaved kin. From this sample, five cases of presumed close-kin slavery were identified, kin not only owned enslaved kin, the enslaved were treated as any other slaves and kinship was no extenuating circumstance. By analysing these cases, we have found that close-kin ownership and slavery were interconnected practices that should be studied in unison to grasp the tension between emancipatory strategies and economic gain. Furthermore, the variety in circumstances shows that additional research is needed to continue the creation of a broader framework of kinship and slavery, so that this can be applied to slave societies around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, scholars across all areas of marketing have studied consumer gift‐giving behavior. Despite the growing popularity of this research topic, no extensive review of the gift‐giving literature exists. To that end, this paper offers an expansive review of research on consumer gift‐giving, focusing primarily on work coming from within the marketing discipline, but also drawing on foundational pieces from other fields. We review extant scholarship on five of gift‐giving's most important aspects—givers' motivations, givers' inputs, giver‐recipient mismatches, value creation/reduction, and the greater gift‐giving context. In doing so, we illuminate the literature's key agreements and disagreements, shed light on themes that traverse ostensibly disparate gift‐giving findings, and develop deeper conceptualizations of gifting constructs. Moreover, we identify opportunities for improvement in the gift‐giving literature and use them to create key agendas for future gift‐giving research. In sum, this paper offers a single point of reference for gift‐giving scholars, improves academia's current understanding of gift‐giving, offers several theoretical contributions, and generates multiple paths for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reward-based crowdfunding has enabled an unprecedented number of consumers to provision capital for commercial and artistic ventures. Each year, consumers use digital platforms to transfer billions of dollars to entrepreneurs and artists to help them develop a wide range of market innovations. Notably, these consumers obtain no financial benefits, no formal guarantee that their money will be used aptly, and no reimbursement options. Under such materially unfavorable conditions, why do consumers transfer their money to these producers? The present research answers this question by introducing the concept of a "market-fostering gift system": a social contract that entices consumers to fund the creation and enhancement of market offerings by mobilizing the logic and practices of gift-giving. This conceptualization includes the core stakeholders, processes, outcomes, and shortcomings of reward-based crowdfunding, providing theoretical structure to this consequential articulation of platform capitalism. In addition, this conceptualization advances theory about how gift and market economies intersect. Whereas previous research emphasizes the tensions that characterize their interface, this article brings to the fore the complementary, scalable relationship between gift-giving and market exchange. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper problematizes gift relations in criminal organizations. It adopts a symbolic interaction perspective to focus scholarly attention on the way in which actants skillfully maneuver within the social expectations inherent in gift‐giving relations. The study is based on insights from twenty interviews with ex‐convicts and ten interviews with police officers or associates, and an in‐depth analysis of memoirs, police reports, and newspaper articles. Our study expands the scope of symbolic interactionism by considering how the exchange of gifts and favors is emotionally stylized to achieve both social and operative goals. We aim to carefully deconstruct the performance of gift‐giving and favor exchange in Israeli crime organizations, to understand how it is orchestrated to elicit genuine feelings among givers and recipients, as well as to control the use of violence. Finally, we identify gift‐giving as a double‐edged sword designed to lure recruits into a network of binding obligations, only to form a durable system of credit and debt wherein any transgressions are strictly punished. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The gift tradition is a universal and functional culture pattern that is encountered in all cultures. This tradition has been maintained in both primitive and contemporary cultures. In modern cultures, gift-giving has been offering more opportunities to consumers than previous eras In the gift of gift tradition, it is necessary to be brought together fields such as consumer behavior, history of economy, psychology, sociology, anthropology, and culture in order to be able to examine the behavior of women in buying gifts, giving gifts, and accepting gifts from the others. The purpose of this paper is to try to understand the feelings, thoughts and expectations of women about gift-giving. For this purpose, firstly the concept of gift-giving, and in this direction the thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors of women in gift-giving were thoroughly examined from the past to the present and new suggestions were made as stated in the results obtained from this paper [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reciprocal exchanges of messages, likes, and pictures on social media are typical expressions of mobile youth culture. After all, it is well-established that young people's disclosure practices support their efforts to maintain relationships, gain autonomy, and, by large, consolidate a place in the world. What is often missing, however, is an exploration of how the specific socio-cultural contexts of ethno-religious minority youths shape and are shaped by social media appropriations. Therefore, we conducted a 15-month ethnographic study among ethno-religious minority youths in which we investigated networked gift-giving practices. We stress the notion of "networked" because the results illustrate how these young people appropriate the amplified visibility of their relational maintenance behaviors on social media in order to negotiate status and social ties. We connect these findings to the concept of a "distrustful society" as the participants hold a general distrust in society due to experiences of racism and marginalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since at least the nineteenth century, the Maratha warrior-king Shivaji (r. 1674–80) has served as a central symbol in Indian politics. This article interrogates his legacy through the lens of his famous sword, the Bhavani Talvar. At least three swords have been identified as this weapon since the nineteenth century; by analysing each of these claims in turn, I consider how the discourse around Shivaji's sword(s) traces the evolving legacy of Shivaji himself. Interested less in the historical merits of these claims than in the socio-political work they perform, I seek to uncover why the last of these three, now in London, has become essentially synonymous with the Bhavani Talvar in the popular sphere. Ultimately, I attribute this preference to the object's political resonance: supposedly given to the Prince of Wales by a descendant of Shivaji in 1875, the object has been a rallying cry for Indian politicians of diverse ideological persuasions, who, in demanding its return, have sought to position themselves as the heirs to Shivaji and the healers of a nation still ailing from colonial wounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extant literature on the dark side of gift-giving has predominantly focused on the dark side of generalised or balanced reciprocity, and not on negative reciprocity or unequal exchange of goods and services for personal gains. However, by emphasising the negativities around generalised or balanced reciprocity, understandings of an exploitative relationship are limited. Drawing on textual data from various online sources on the topic of 'son preference', this article explores the dark side of gift-giving in terms of unequal exchange and how it can generate a vicious cycle of affective and social destructions in the lived experience of the exploited giver. Crucially, I illuminate how certain aspects of pre-exchange socialisation, gift-receipt disqualification, and gift-giving indebtedness unfold in the service of perpetuating a range of subject positions that foster sustained exploitation within the family consumption system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bagan, Myanmar (formerly Burma) is famous for its over 2200 Buddhist temples. People contribute to these temples as charitable work, to fulfill social or sacred obligations, or show they are "good Buddhists". In World War II Japan's military government sent Shikoku youth to South East Asia, including Burma, where over 6000 died. Following WWII, Shikoku groups sent funds to Burma to memorialize their dead. Thus began over 70 years of transnational giving involving construction and maintenance of temples, generalized support, and bringing medical advances to Burma/Myanmar. This article explores Shikoku-Myanmar transnational giving, and how it reverberates with peace and war issues. It raises a counter narrative to the Japanese state's assertion that Yasukuni Shrine is necessary to memorialize war dead, makes links with Japanese citizens' movements upholding Japan's pacifist constitution and Article 9 (renouncing militarism), and adds to gift-giving frameworks, showing how, once established gift-giving can create obligations including those not directly about reciprocation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through a close reading of account books related to the three mid-sixteenthcentury wedding journeys--of Sophie of Jagiellon (1522-1575), Elizabeth of Habsburg (1554-1592), and Anne of Habsburg (1549-1580)--this study examines the overall financing of the bridal transfer, including paying the retinue, provisions, and logistical issues, while also investigating the economic agency of the princely brides in early modern Europe. In the first part, the article offers a brief typology of financial arrangements between the matrimonial parties and then discusses third-party involvement, in the form of the free-of-cost hosting of the princesses. Moving into the second part, the study analyses the salaries of the entourage members and sheds light on travel-related details, such as food or navigation. Based on the financial records, the last part scrutinises the princesses' activity, arguing that these women were active agents, entering into a dialogue with people they encountered. This was expressed in remuneration for overnight stays, services, gifts, or alms for the poor or new-born children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this research, we propose that consumers' degree of independence (not consumers' degree of interdependence) predicts their preference for giving experiential (vs. material) gifts. Across four studies, we find that consumers from the U.S. (vs. India), consumers with independent (vs. interdependent) self-construal, consumers with a high (vs. low) level of independence, and Whites (vs. Asians) prefer giving experiential (vs. material) gifts. Furthermore, we demonstrate that promotion focus underlies this effect, ruling out alternative explanations (i.e., reliance on feelings and the need for unique products). This research makes theoretical contributions and provides actionable managerial implications for marketers by identifying who would prefer giving experiential (vs. material) gifts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Egg donation has becoming increasingly common however there is a shortage of donors in many countries, including New Zealand. Research regarding motivations to donate in the context of New Zealand's open-identity and altruistic donation policy and practice is, thus far, limited. This in-depth qualitative study comprised interviews with 21 women to examine their motivations in donating to recipients previously unknown to them. Donors valued parenthood highly and had become aware of the fertility struggles of other women through their own experiences, those of friends or family, or through online personal accounts or advertising. The ability to select recipients and build a comprehensive picture of them, such as through reading recipient profiles or meeting them in person, as is possible in New Zealand, deepened their identification with recipients and thus their empathy and desire to help. They resisted commercial models, positioning themselves as by nature altruistic and regarding their donations as expressions of solidarity and acts of personal gift-giving to specific others who became known to them through donation. Donation was interpreted as a socially relational process, setting up expectations around relationships and ongoing connection. Such understandings have implications for recruitment as well as ongoing experiences and support needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study is to show how contract-intensive economic institutions can promote diversity and inclusion of social and political groups in economic and business opportunities provided by governments. Building on the interdisciplinary political economy and governance literatures, two types of economic institutions are identified: rent-seeking and contract-intensive. It is argued that rent-seeking economic activities can reinforce in-group norms, gift-giving practices, and governments' discrimination of groups. However, when contract-intensive activities increase in an economy, they can enhance diversity and inclusion of groups in the marketplace creating opportunity structures outside the state and as businesses press governments toward greater impartiality. Analyses of 165 countries from 1961 to 2011 show that a one standard deviation increase in contract-intensive economic activity is associated with a substantial 18 percent increase in the equality of access to state business opportunities for both social and political groups in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Calligraphy is an understudied aspect of the reception of Chinese art in early modern Europe. Chinese visitors to Middelburg (1601) and Amsterdam (1654) first demonstrated it as a cultural practice. Other written samples circulated in the Dutch Republic, an emporium for Chinese goods. This article focuses on a previously unknown participant in this exchange: Anna Maria van Schurman, Europe's first female university student, who had mastered various Asian scripts and was expected to try her hand at Chinese and Japanese. In 1637 Andreas Colvius sent her samples of East Asian writing to copy 'by her own hand'. This exchange makes possible a transcultural study of the calligraphic gift. Via the popular writings of Matteo Ricci, Van Schurman's correspondents may have learned about the role of calligraphy in fostering social relationships in late Ming China. Some of the visual and material qualities of East Asian writing must have made it look like a fitting tribute to a female European scholar of high profile and, in being exchanged as a gift, calligraphy acquired new meanings even while remaining illegible. In seventeenth-century China and Europe, the friendly exchange of calligraphy expressed new forms of sociability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Reti Medievali is the property of Firenze University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In China, live streaming has grown rapidly in recent years, with gift-giving, a unique business model in live streaming, driving the development of many industries. This article explores the association between gift-giving behavior in game live streaming and viewers' live streaming experience. Specifically, this study aims to explore the correlation between Para-social Relationships, Social Presence, and gift-giving in the context of China. Based on the survey and interview of the viewer on Douyu, a Chinese live streaming platform, this study found that there is only a weak to a medium correlation between para-social relationships and viewers' gift-giving behavior. The correlation between social presence and gift-giving was even weaker. Although the conclusion of this study may be affected by the sample size limitation, it can still provide a reference for the current research on gift-giving on Chinese live streaming platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social foundations of the platform economy stand at the forefront of academic research in economic sociology, communication, and organization studies. Can a study of patterns of gift-giving in online marketplaces further our understanding of the social ties and normative structures underpinning trade? This study suggests that the answer is in the affirmative. Studies of gift-giving in offline markets assert that gifting is predicated on reciprocity and social obligation, and enables the constitution and reproduction of social ties that facilitate trade. This article presents a three-pronged theoretical argument. First, it extends the argument that gifting creates a social space that is open to manipulations and interpretations. Second, it asserts that gift-giving in the online marketplace should be viewed as a particular type of "market device," an object that guides market actors how to make sense of their socio-economic actions. Third, the article argues that gifting operates as a "conversion device" providing buyers and sellers with a flexible material and symbolic resource that allows them to oscillate and convert between distinct moral frameworks that co-exist within the socio-cultural institution of gift-giving. Based on 54 in-depth interviews, this study finds that gifting flourishes around reputation systems, pointing to their central role in the platform economy. The role of gift-giving as a conversion device is developed and discussed, and the way sellers employ it to convert the normative framework depicting reputation systems as rational and calculative, into a framework highlighting reciprocity and obligation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crowdfunding is known as a funding solution for creative projects. Creators and business ventures consider crowdfunding as an outlet for promoting creative projects and raising funds. The literature and the media coverage overemphasized its benefits without taking into account key limitations for specific sectors. Based on exploratory, qualitative data gathering, this article investigates what artists expect from crowdfunding and what results from their successful engagement with this funding model. The findings organized in three sequential moments (pre-campaign, during and after) revealed that artists see crowdfunding as a contingent funding resort when other preferred methods are unavailable (subsidies, sponsorship, or labor market opportunities). While expecting to enter markets, artists remain restricted to their social networks, thus reaching successful, yet low funding targets. Artists report that the "investments" in their work resemble gift-giving practices of a costly nature. We interpret these findings as the result of a relative difficulty to reach out to other audiences and match one's expectations with this funding model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a trend to use rational and utilitarian paradigms to interpret the revival of folk religions, other human motives need to be acknowledged. Humans do behave in their economic and spiritual self-interests. But wider social and structural factors bind people into a moral community. To obtain a broader and more nuanced interpretation of exchange relationships, we apply Marcel Mauss' paradigm of "The Gift" to the ritual life of a Miao Tzu village (an ethnic minority of Southern China). This interpretation accounts for individual motives, such as for physical cures, healthy well-being, and favorable position in the afterlife. Simultaneously, Miao Tzu ritual life binds the community together with reciprocity to restore moral and emotional relationships. Our broader perspective aligns with David Palmer's "religious gift economy" that legitimizes exchange relations with the supernatural as appropriate as with gifting to other humans. Maussian theory lays the foundation for understanding religion, ritual, exchange, and reciprocity in a fundamentally inclusive and holistic way in a Miao Tzu village subject to the state development program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]