Cultural Relativism Questions

For this response, I want you to discuss one or more of the following questions. You can discuss questions with other people for your post, or you post, or respond to posts, more than one time in order to boost your grade.


Here are some of the questions that you could discuss. These questions are all drawn from your reading on cultural relativism.

1. What challenge does the case of Eskimo** behavior (or perhaps the behavior of the South American tribe that we watched in the film in class) present to the study of ethics?

**The correct term for Eskimos is Inuit.

2. What are the six elements in the article involved in the view of ethics called cultural relativism?

3a. What is the argument advanced by cultural relativists for their position? Note: There is a quite specific and clearly defined answer here.

3b. Is this argument persuasive? Why or why not?

5. The author asks us to assume that cultural relativism is true. He then sets out the negative consequences of holding such a view. What are the negative consequences that follow if these turn out to be true?

6. Why does focusing on values rather than customs undercut the cultural relativist?

7. The author argues that there are in fact certain values that every society must share? What are they and what reason does he give for claiming that all cultures must share them?

8. While the author ultimately rejects cultural relativism, what things does he think come out of the idea?

Class Tonight Cancelled

Good afternoon,

I just wanted to let everyone know that I’m having sort of a family emergency and I’m going to need to cancel class tonight. I’ve included a revised copy of the syllabus to an email I sent to your OASIS account so that you know what reading to do for class next week. That is, in the “Conformity and Conflict” book you should read:

Unit 7, “Law and Politics,” P. 260-264;

Chapter 24: “Cross-Cultural Law: The Case of the Gypsy Offender,” P. 265-273;

And

Chapter 26: “Life without Chiefs,” P. 284-293

On the blog, please respond to one of the questions that are listed at the end of each reading in the book.

I have graded everything of yours except the midterm. If any of you would like to pick up your grades, then you can stop by my office: Rm. 527, 600 S. Michigan Ave., but please call first: 312.369.7768.

Andre

One time...I went to church..

I was raised going to church every Sunday morning with my mom and my dad. That lasted until i was about eight years old, and my mother decided that she no longer was going to church, and if she didn't have to wake up at nine in the morning then i wasn't about to do it either. So, i stopped going as well. My father continued to attend our church every Sunday until i was in high school. Then, we all stopped going. However, since then, religion has been a topic of interest for me. I chose to have friends who were atheist, really religious, and nonsecular throughout my life after i stopped attending church. I think this was mainly to see where i fit in with the whole "God issue"-Do you believe in God or don't you? Today i feel like i know that i do not believe in an imaginary man in the sky, and i tend to go down the more scientific path. I went to church last Sunday though, and i found that even if the notion of coming from Adam and Eve is a bit far fetched for me i still gained a sense of inspiration and grounding and belonging from attending the service. Ironically enough, during the service we were talking about relationships. What it means to be single, married, or divorced. Marriage is such a big deal in the church community, because it is a commitment before god. It is a life time together, literally. It is not acceptable to have sex before marriage and so on, with rules and regulations about what goes on behind closed doors when it comes to church relationships. (mind you this is a large generalization from the service i attended and what i heard. it is, I'm sure, different from religion to religion.) anyways, I'm sitting there listening to this thinking that church people have immense self control, or at least they pretend to. Then, the next day i walk into anthropology class and I'm confronted with a cultural discussion of relationships and marriage, and I'm thinking, how bizarre, but i run with it. After listening and breaking down what a relationship was with the class, i leave and go visit with my friend who i went to church with, and we begin talking about the ideal relationship. How arranged marriages work, what doesn't work, and why people get divorced. We both came to the conclusion, mind you this is not scientific, and it is rather quite simplistic: if people can make arranged marriages work by whatever means necessary, then why is it that we cant willingly try and make relationships work that we have chosen? A friend of mine, who has been married and divorced said to me, that he believes he knows what didn't work about his first marriage and that he will, the next time around, be more willing to make the relationship work the second time around, because he is more aware of what he is looking for, and better understands how to make relationships work. I think he is lying to himself, but that's be going to back to science and statistics that say 85% of second marriages end in divorce. Maybe some people are "called" to be single, as the pastor said it in church, and maybe some of us are called to be married five times. However i would like to think that i am not called for marriage or divorce, but rather i live breathe and die happy knowing that i spent my life or portions of my life with people or a person that i loved, cared for, honored, and cherished...(or however those vows go) without having to put a ring on it like Beyonce or be bounded by god.

Midterm Essay Questions

Ten Points Each (Answer Six Questions) I want examples from the reading, class discussions, etc...

1) Explain the importance of language to group identity? Provide examples.

2) How do the Jesuit colonists portray Native Americans in the Jesuit Relations readings? How much do we learn about them from this reading? Do these accounts tell you more about the Native Americans or the Jesuit colonists?

3) What is the Kula ring? Why did Malinowski think that this practice was important? Did he find any rituals in his own culture that were analogous to the Kula ring practice?

4) In the article “The Hunters: Scarce Resources in the Kalahari”, the author assesses the day-to-day life of !Kung life. How does their day-to-day life as foragers compare with that held by many anthropologists in the 1960s. In a broader sense, how might the day-to-day life of such people differ from agriculturalists, or pastoralists?

5) What was the ecology of Easter Island when Polynesians first arrived on the island about A.D. 400? What did they eat? What changes happened to their environment? How did this affect their lives and does this apply to anything happening in the world today?

6) In the article “Reciprocity and the Power of Giving” and our discussions about gift giving, what do we mean by reciprocity? What is the social function of reciprocity? How can giving be used to intimidate other people or groups? Give examples from class, you own life, and the article.

7) Based on the article “Life Without Fathers or Husbands,” what is the basic domestic unit in Na society and what are its main social and economic functions? Describe the Na society. What are the culturally defined ways that Na men and women meet and set up assignations? Are there taboos and other restrictions on their sexual activity defined by their culture?


8) How does Laura Bohannan’s interpretation of “Shakespereae in the Bush,” fail in some ways? How does her story to the Tiv deomonstrate the concept of naïve realism? How does her story represent cross-cultural misunderstanding? What parts of Hamlet didn’t work for the Tiv?

As always let me know if you have questions!

Marriage for Love... not anymore

I see marriages more like a business venture. What can two people bring together to do better for their situations? Many marriages are prearranged in other countries and they seem to work out fine. That not to say all prearranged marriages work out, but they work and not off of love.

With the ailing economy, I’d rather have a business savvy wife, than a pregnant housewife, who doesn't contribute financially to keep debt in the house hold to a minimum.

m4rr14g5

I believe marriage is a great idea. It not only helps structure a good family system, but it also is the ultimate way to show you love for another individual. I think it depends on your backgrounds though if you decided to get married. If you are from a bad neighborhood with a very low marriage rate or if you have had a bad family life, it will either convince you to get married or to stay away from marriage. If you are an unmarried mother, you may be judged in society today. People may say that you are unfit to have a child, or even irresponsible. not being married is becoming more acceptable because it is becoming more common today.

Marriage...

To my own knowledge, marriage can be a wonderful and loving thing, or it can tear two people apart and completely change them into completely different people. Someone whom I have known my entire life went through a divorce. Going through the divorce was enough heartache in itself, but the aftermath was even worse.
She has a young daughter who just started kindergarten and cant be there when she leaves for school or even gets home from school. She barely gets to spend time with her; the only time is when she tucks her into bed. The someone I know works downtown and lives in the suburbs, so the commute to and from work can result in hours of traveling depending upon what kind of traffic the streets provide that day. In addition to her barely getting enough time to spend with her daughter, she only sees her every other weekend because of shared custody with her bastard of an ex-husband.
Now don't think that the little five year old girl wakes up in an empty house and comes home to an empty house everyday; she has two loving grandparents that take care of her while her mom is gone at work all day. But even so, the young girl starts fights with her mom because she never gets to spend time with her. If the someone I know did have a husband, perhaps she would have a constant father figure and a mother who could be with her a great deal more.
Her divorce was inevitable, I saw it from the beginning, but I'm not saying that the little girls life would be any better because of the someone I know and her bastard of an ex-husband fighting constantly. Being a single parent is incredibly hard to my own personal knowledge, and I hope and pray for the people whose lives suffer because of it.

Not so much

The question here is does anyone believe that marriage on the basis of love is our cultures tradition, false. To even state the question in such a way isolates others outside of what stereotypes have dictated "the norm". Would it be risky to marry someone based on romantic love? I don't know about you but I don't believe anyone feels that way or falls into that beautifully illusionary image of America Romance. Don't get me wrong the problem I have is not with love but with the marriage section. People weigh a million and one options when deciding if marriage is what's best, never is it "Oh I want to jump their bones every time they smile their too perfect I need to marry them (a metaphor I use to express the concept of being in love in less common terms)." and if that is so, then the chances of success maritally, or otherwise. This might just be the part in me who loves debating philosophy but a question like this seems nearly as impossible to provoke anything of substance as is a debate about the afterlife, but much more boring. Call me Mr. pessimist over here, but marriage is hardly as beautiful a thing as people (most often extremists) want you to believe it is. If I ever get married you better believe survival will be an issue, if my family can't survive, the way they deserve to be living than that's not what I even call survival.

Marriage: a social contract on a smaller scale.

In some cultures, marriage is undoubtedly a measure intended for socio-economic stability. In the documentary we viewed the third week in class about bride kidnapping, it seemed that the traditional Azerbaijanis married in order to preserve their pastoral way of life. To marry for love in this culture was seen as foolish. We as americans can rely on people in our lives beyond our significant others. When there is not an established government, power is divided up among the strongest and most influential. A family can gain influence, power, and strength by carefully choosing or arranging who marries into the family. If in the Azerbaijani society, one married for love, one takes a great risk that the person they marry will not be a competant worker. In these instances marriage is is not only a bond between two people; it is a social contract ensuring the survival of an entire lineage of people.

Unmarried? thats cool!

In the United States and many European Countries, ones social status, financial security, and livelihood do not depend on being married to someone else.  For Men, there is not as much pressure to take on a wife and father children. For many, there is no land or animals to inherit, no legitimate reason to pass on your name. For women, there is even less reason to get married in this day and age. Women are finally on an equal playing field with men in business, politics, education, money making abilities, and every other sociopolitical sphere. In the past when women could not vote or own land, there would have been more of an appeal and necessity to be married. In both male and female cases, it would have been a way to gain social status and good standing in the community. In other developing countries, the choice to remain unmarried could hinder your life in enormous ways and is seen as somewhat of a taboo, especially for women. In many Middle Eastern countries, women will remain in the house of their parents for their entire unmarried lives. In many countries remaining unmarried is looked down upon and is looked at as being a burden on your family. Perhaps, as almost half of the marriages in the U.S. end in divorce, we as Americans take marriage for granted. Because there is no social reason that marriage is necessary, there is no need to remain married or work things out. Although it is important to keep in mind that even in America there are entire groups of people that are denied the right to marry, namely the GLBT community. 

Marriage and Family

I don't believe in marriage, it's simply a way for the government to validate an emotional and spiritual connection between two people that may or may not last like everything else in life. Forcing two people to be bound to one another for the rest of their lives at their expense to the state and well as the social and religious ramifications is just stupid and unnatural. One of the origins I am most familiar with, which is probably moreover the basis for how current marriages are done was initially created in the feudal system between a lord and his vassal, there was an exchanging of rings, the vassal getting to his knee, a public ceremony, and the promise of a pseudo-symbiotic relationship between the two parties. Marriage has seldom been based solely on love, many were for purposes of alliances between nations, exchanges of lands, class mobility, religious necessity, social pressure, protection, propagating the species, or doing what your supposed to. The increase in divorce, and the decrease in traditional marriage makes sense, and its good to see people finally start to realize that they're not permanently bound to one another.

I also think it's a great idea for people to have a child out of wedlock as long as they both actually intend to raise the child and do as best as they can, balancing the child between one another. Possibly even with the assistance of friends or relatives to help raise the child in a far more communal environment where they can experience a much broader variety of people than the traditional and flawed idea of the nuclear family. This leads children to growing up naive and trapped in a systematic box. Of course for different cultures and people of varying mentalities this ideology might not work as well for them, so i suppose this is really just based on one's own opinions and values. It makes sense that certain cultures and followers of certain religious beliefs adhere to particular rules for marriage and children but humans are constantly changing and evolving and as social and familial structures change and survival is not as pertinent this system will most likely change.

Out Of Wedlock

Europe and North America are predominatly Christian continents so the biggest problem in my opinion posed by having a child without getting married is the religious ramifications. People with strict catholic/christian upbringings tend to have it embedded in their mind that you have to be married to have a child, no if's and's or but's. Most people with that upbringing, were a pregnancy to arise, they'd get married right away. Thats what they're culture and upbringing has brought them to believe is the right thing to do.

But living in the free societies that we do, often times children are had out of wedlock. "Love Childs" are often looked down upon by the church and the extremely religious but the liberals of our nations completely support a woman's right to do what she wants. Now if a woman were to get pregnant in a less free society, the decision would not be hers, but that of her families. So despite the strict Christian guidelines for children and marriage, I feel fortunate to live in a society where we have the freedom to choose what we want to do despite any cultural negativity it might bring on.

marriage.

I am still a romantic at heart, in spite of a predominantly skeptical temperament.

That being said, I do think that marrying for love is ideal, and something I hope to achieve one day. The only problem is that, while it becomes clearer as I age, I have no idea what is required of someone in being faithful forever. It's a completely subjective idea -- can't really say you know until you know, and even then you can change your mind or discover something entirely different. Love differs between people, and then it differs between couples, and then you add in cultural background, beliefs, faith. How is it possible to line up your path in life perfectly with someone else's? I don't understand.

I can say though that marrying to better your life makes sense as well. Some people really have no choice -- it's either get married or be put in a corner. Financial and cultural reasons are just as valid if they're personal, and it's the same with not getting married at all. For some people, the official rites and titles simply have no context. I know a lot of couples who would like to and plan to spend their lives together, but don't like the legal responsibility of being married. On the other hand, some of these couples are also unhappy with the fact that, even if they might as well be husband/wife, they are denied some of the rights that come with the certificate. Married people do get benefits, and whether or not those are fair is entirely subjective as well.

It's all ridiculously complicated, but then ... Most things are. 

Blah.blah.BLAH Kids???

Its funny, as I was reading this blog it sparked a conversation with my group of friends that kind of took this blog off topic, but could still work. After we had all established the fact we are broke, I through out the idea of selling sperm and eggs for cash. Then everyone jumped on their laptops to check out the going rate. What we found according to the .midwestspermbank.com and conceiveabilities.com the going rate of sperm can rang from $30-$100 a pop after about 6 weeks of tests, screenings and while you know... While the average cost of an egg is about $7,000 after a one month cycle of getting hormones pumped into you. 

In the end, no one decided giving up over on month of their life would be worth the money. One of my friends also brought up a good ethical dilemma saying the females don't always make eggs, what's to say the one you sell would be the only one you could ever have? That kind of freaked me out, being someone who same day wants to have kids and some kind of family, what if the one egg I should sell is my only chance? Crazy to come to that conclusion, knowing in the end I wasn't about to spend a month going through the process anyway so I dropped my fear. 

So what does go through the head of someone wanting to donate their eggs, besides the idea of quick cash? Do they see it as some kind of civic duty or their way of giving back to their community? I'd really like to know what people are thinking right before they take the plunge. Maybe its woman who have already had the amount of children they wanted and wants to give other the experience of having children.

     

who knows?

to reply to the second of the questions posed. it is my belief that a large majority of people getting married are jumping the gun and if for no other reason people are living longer. so why hurry into marriage. im certainly not the same person i was four years ago. how do you account for that when you're getting married when you're still a kid yourself. i know this is unrealistic but maybe some sort legal age to be married, like 30, say you decide at 24 to get married. if that relationship last six more years, absolutely get married.  as far as the type of society this would represent to me is a realistic one and a smart one. young people should be more concerned about bettering themselves gaining knowledge, skills, even hobbies. In a society without marriage i believe the society has a better chance of furthering itself. although to play devils advocate a person could just spent that time wasting money and drinking.  

I do...not

In the more liberally free parts of the world like America, Canada and parts of Europe, more and more people are having children outside of marriage through a number of ways. Gay adults and singles are adopting more children, single women are opting for visiting sperm banks or finding a surrogate mother in order to have a child. I think this phenomena is occurring because life in these nations moves so quickly and the definintion of family has drastically changed. As opposed to the 1950's Leave it To Beaver era where men and women got married right out of highschool and started a family with 2.5 kids and a dog, most people choose to go to college and put their career before their personal life, which doesn't leave a lot of time for in love falling or getting married. Many people are also having kids really early. Like teenage pregnancy, which is most of the time a mistake or and accident but ends up turning kids into parents and forming families, defined by either single mother and fathers or a very young couple working through it. I think in the busy lives we lead and the impressive careers people aspire to have now put family building on the back burner. I mean think about all the singles websites like match.com and eharmony.com, people just don't have the time anymore to go out and find their soulmate, but the desire to pass on their genes and progress the community with a new generation is still there, so people drift to the alternatives. So to answer the question, of course there is a relationship between the society and the choices members make to start families. In countries where family is priority to gaining weath or retaining stature within the society, marriages are arranged and not based on love. In societies where a partner and children are needed to work or support the community, it is important just to marry and have the children to create a tightknit system.
However I don't see any problem with the ways that Americans and Europeans have families. I'm a firm believer in marriage that lasts a lifetime, but I'm a hopeless romantic. I think a lot of people just need someone there to love and to love them back. Its all about human connection, especially in the fast paced society we live in, and well who's better to love than a child? I think it makes perfect sense for our society to have a child outside of marriage. We aren't as much of a society based on tradtion and ways the bible teaches us to do things, it's a new millenium and people are moving away from how people used to do things, I think it only makes sense that family units change too.
My family didn't start as the 1950's stereotype. My dad was getting divorced and had a daughter already and I'm pretty sure I was an accident and they didn't get married until I was 11. Dysfunctional is just how America runs. I think that marriage is something that should be done out of love, no matter who the person, but I don't think that you need to be in love to have a healthy, happy child. I strongly believe you only need to love the child, loving someone else is just a bonus.

Blog Assignment: Marriage

For this week's assignment, then discuss one of the following topics:

1) People in traditional communities in countries where the state is either weak or absent depend on relatives to help meet the basic challenges of survival.

In such societies, would it be risky to choose marriage partners exclusively based on romantic love? Can you imagine other factors playing a role if the long-term survival of your community might be at stake?

2) Many people in North America and Europe choose to have children outside of marriage. Considering some of the major functions of marriage, do you think there is a relationship between the type of society an individual belongs to and the choice to forgo the traditional benefits of marriage? Under what cultural conditions might the choice to remain unmarried present serious challenges?

Life is a Gift

I believe that life in itself is the ultimate gift. You are given to it as soon as you are born and you are free to do whatever you want with it. You can take the easy way out or you can always try to improve yourself and become a more evolved, better human being. I also believe that learning is also an ultimate gift because that can't be taken away from you until your time on earth is done. You are always able to gain new knowledge and pass information you have acquired onto others. Experiencing life in today's modern day society is a blessing because our generation has already been able to see such great things happen as well as enormous tragedies. It may be a cliche, but I don't care, it is what I truly believe and I will never take my life for granted.

I want a Hot Wheels, and Crash Bandicoot, and Candy 4 mai Birfday.

I don't think all gifts have to be material things. I do consider gifts typically to be a positive thing given from one person to another, or to a group of people. Any way you give, it doesn't have to be a material thing. I think someone said in an earlier post that they consider something as simple as a smile to be a gift. I fully agree with this, I also think that things like helping with homework, or helping someone move into an apartment could be considered a gift. Anything done with the intention of helping or positively affecting one's life by giving your time and energy can be considered as a gift. Of course people may say, well if you are exerting time and energy then the gift is not free. This is only true if you live by that mentality, which brings me back to a previous blog entry about time as money, or time as a gift. If you consider time to be money, then giving up your free time to help someone out or do something positive for them would be considered a costly gift. But the mentality that I pursue is that If I am giving up my time for something positive, than there was no time wasted at all. In this way, I believe that any non-material gift can be considered free.

GifTS

I also agree that gifts are not always a bad thing. My parents have gotten me presents without wanting anything in return. But there are times they have gotten me something to keep me behaving well...
Some people may say there is no such thing as a selfless gift. I can see why they would say that. you may get something for your birthday, and they would expect you to get them something for theirs. I wouldn't feel bad at all if I didn't receive a gift.

Meditation is good for you.

I grew up volunteering and helping others. In fact, I am going to be spending a good chunk of my life after i graduate doing exactly that. I think it is very interesting to think about how people feel obligated to give when they have received a gift. In my case after i graduate i will be helping those who cannot help themselves let alone give a material gift. Sometimes people forget that a gift can be given to you from you. I get great satisfaction and inner enlightenment from helping others. Also, a simple smile or thank you from someone can mean much more than flowers or whatever the "gift" of thanks may be. I think that's one of the greatest things about volunteering. In a yoga class that i take, we talk a lot about non-obligation and non-attachment. This idea of non-attachment is great in theory, but i do think that the world does go round because of give and take.

Ritual Gifts

There's no such thing as a free lunch and there is no such thing as a free gift. In our culture, we throw celebrations for every event in a person's life, birthdays, mitzvahs, weddings, babies, you name it. If someone is reaching a new place in their life, more often then not they throw a big party and invite their friends and family, and what do these invitees bring...? GIFTS! Gifts are a form of payment for invitations to kick ass soirees. And giving gifts, at least when we were kinds was ALWAYS a competition, who bought Jonny the most rad action figure or who spent the most, ususally determined who was Jonny's best friend for the next week and a half. Gifts are a form of payment or bribery for invitations and friendships repectfully but they are also consolation. Take Christmas for example. I dont know too many people who scramble at the last minute to make sure they are prepared for midnight mass or reinactments of the birth of christ. No, people scramble to get gifts for the holidays. Gifts end up being almost a reward for the hard work and dedication it took to buy gifts for others. In most holiday cases, whomever you buy a gift for ends up buying one for you too. So gifts are rewards. And well, you dont normally receive a reward for free. Noone got the key to the city for sitting doing nothing, someone had to jump in front of a train or pull the child from the burning building.
I suppose there are circumstances where you can give or recieve a gift for free. But then, normally there is a feeling of guilt, like if your girlfriend buys you a shirt, you feel like you should buy your girlfriend something in return. Its a gratitude thing. And maybe gratitude is a form of payment? I feel like you would have to have an odd sort of conscience to not feel like repaying someone for a gift they give you. Unless, okay, take that back, a gift of monetary signifigance one should probably feel like returning the gift. I dont know if a macaroni necklace really constitutes purchasing a gift in return. But maybe I am wrong.
I was raised in a family where if someone does something for you, you do something for them. Favors are returned with favors no matter if they are family or friends. Gifts were returned with gifts. But I was also the kid who gave Jonny the most rad action figure....

What happen to the good old days?

Call me old fashion, but every Sunday I bake cookies or brownies for all my friends on my floor. It's a simple gift and I don't ask for anything in return. I do it as just something simply nice after a sometimes very long weekend.  I was raised with the notion that I should always give back, my mother had me volunteering at the high school she worked at by the age of 8. I worked with high school students until I was in junior high and then joined my own student organized volunteer program. Now I just like doing simple stuff for my friends that don't mean or ask for anything in return. 

But I know everything is not puppies and rainbows. I see the pressure for people to give and give back and I have felt it to. I hate valentines days and christmas. Two of the lamest holidays ever, now don't get me wrong there are some parts of each holiday I can stand. But now there is all this pressure to get what you really want and give and spend money no one really has, for things no one really needs. 

I have this friend who is very rich, I mean like money that I will never see in my life time rich. And just because she knows I'm no where near her level she pays for a lot of stuff for us to do and her parents take us out to dinner all the time at really (Really) nice places. But its hard because I can never really gift them back because it looks so pathetic to them.  So instead I try and be the most supportive and understanding friend I can be.  That really the only gift I can give her. Gifts....can't give them, can't not give them.......

Selfless Giving

In my opinion there is no such thing as a selfless gift, even if you don't expect a gift in return, you are still recieving something. If you give a gift to a friend, you're expecting reassurance of the friendship. If you give a gift to charity, your recieving self-assurance of your quality as a human being. It is impossible to give a gift without recieving something in return. The only selfless gift I could think of is giving your life in service of something, a gift not often given.

giving as obligation.

I was not raised to specifically think that you HAVE to give something in return when you receive a gift, but it was certainly implied in my family, school, and throughout society while growing up.  This especially rings true during holidays.  You know the feeling... Valentine's Day comes along (which we all know is some stupid Hallmark holiday anyway) and you buy a gift for the special someone in your life... and you totally expect to get something back.  Otherwise, you feel as though you've been cheated.  You put all this effort, time, and money into getting someone something they might like in order to show your affection... and you got nothing!  That obviously means that this person does not like you anymore, and you are very offended.  This is the same way with most holidays in the U.S.  And this rings true for almost everyone.  (Don't deny it!)  Although, there are a few occasions where you just see something that you think someone might like and you happen to just pick it up and give it to them, but this often only happens after you get to know someone fairly well, and well enough to the point where they probably do the same to you, therefore you are still receiving something in return.  I know this all sounds incredibly cynical (and probably extremely generalized too) but like in the article "The Gift", it is almost as though we are programmed to give AND receive, not just give.

Gifts as Debt

I completely agree with Bryan's post in that I don't believe that gifts are necessarily a bad thing like that article seemed to express. I can understand how it can be potentially viewed as an obligation and a debt that needs to be repaid. But that is really only a fault in the perception of the receiver. A gift is, at least in my eyes something that is given not because the giver has such an excess or a will to dominate through this debt but simply and genuinely to show a physical manifestation, a creation whether bought or created themsleves in still something unique and helpful. It is something given simply to show appreciation and or affection for someone, at least that is if the intentions are pure, which is not always the case but you can't base everything on some people's deviant intentions for presenting someone with something. It is more of a "keep up with jone's" mentality that our social structure has generated that makes us think like this. Gifts in American culture tend to be something purchased, and the bigger and more expensive the better. Regardless of whether or not their is any significance to it. I hope to not change my beliefs on this and assume the best in people and in myself that their are no ill placed intentions.

A gift from you, does not mean a gift from me, ass!

Richard Bach, acclaimed author, philosipher and humanitarian once wrote "Every gift from a friend, is a wish for your happiness." I truly find this to be my belief and by in large the belief shared by the people I've revolved around in life. Maybe I'm just nieve, but I've always viewed gifts in any size for whatever reason (within reason) to demand no form of payment in return except gratfulness. One dictionary defines gift as 1. something given voluntarily without payment in return, as to show favor toward someone, honor an occasion, or make a gesture of assistance; present. 2. the act of giving. The way I was brought up gifts are generosity because they ask of nothing in return. I can understand an argument of America giving money to another country and the forced humility might not be too favorable, but regardless smiling nice for the cameras is nothing when considering what could be done with what has appeared from nothing. I don't believe unless for malicious intent a gift can be considered ill favourable just because the same could not be given in exchange. Gifts are beautiful because they are from someone, and each gift says somethign different about the giver. Just because America bleads money, doesn't mean it's obvious gift of money should be see as a way of asserting ourselves over others, but an embaracing, but otherwise a handy gift. The only implications I feel gifts make are the one assumed by the reciever and those are simply their own crosses to bear so to speak. I'm not going to cry myself to sleep because someone else can't think of a more badass present than mine was.