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THE ENIGMA OF THE GIFT. MAURICE GODELIER ON THE REASONS WHY CERTAIN THINGS ARE INALIENABLE (Zagadka daru jako problem kulturoznawczy.Maurice Godelier o tym, dlaczego nie wszystko podlega wymianie)

100%
Pancewicz-Puchalska M.
Przegląd Kulturoznawczy
|
2008
|
vol. 1
|
issue 1(4)
262-278
EN
Since the publication of a text by Marcel Mauss titled 'The Gift', in 1924, the question of the gift exchange has earned its place in the repertoire of anthropology and other human and social sciences. The paper briefly dscusses what possible benefits for cultural studies can stem from taking up that issue. The authores argues that the discussion on the gift is polyphonic and immense, therefore different concepts of cultural studies (especially the value-oriented and the interdisciplinary-oriented) may find different aspects of the gift's characteristic interesting. Subsequently, she turns her attention to one of voices in the discussion. Maurice Godelier is a contemporary French anthropologist whose book 'The Enigma of the Gift' offers a detailed analysis of the above mentioned essay of Marcel Mauss and develops an original view on reasons why are certain things inalienable. His point of departure is Mauss' claim that gifts are reciprocated because of the spiritual mechanism which ties things to their owners. Godelier also notes that Mauss does not pay enough attention to offerings, included the category of gifts (gifts to gods), neither to relations between people, gods and the rights of ownership. According to Godelier, this leads to omitting the solution of the fundamental question posed by Mauss and underlined by many anthropologists - the question of inalienability - expressed by Anette Weiner's formula 'keeping-while-giving' and reformulated in the Godelier's 'keeping-for-giving' (as things must circulate for the society to exist, but while some of them can be possessed by their receivers in the cycle of exchange, they cannot become their ownership). In the opinion of Godelier, religion is the key to this problem. Man's relations to gods, superhuman beings and forces, relations of infinite debt and gratitude, is here understood in a somewhat durkheimian and marxist way - as a projection of human's aspects on the surrounding world, as a work of repressing man's active presence at his own origin. It does not suffice to say (as Durkheim did), that the society is the source of the sacred, but also that the social 'becomes' sacred for social reasons, that it needs opacity to produce and reproduce itself. After presenting Godelier's stance, the authoress also draws attention to his ethical motivations and the argumentation concerning the place of gift giving in the contemporary capitalist world. She wonders if his declaration and critic is coherent with formerly expressed view that gifts exchanges can be a mean of violence and domination. Pierre Bourdieu's ideas on the logic of practice are then presented as a convincing solution of the ambivalence of the gift. In conclusion, the authoress points out that practical and ethical dimensions are also those features of the gift, which make it an attractive issue for cultural studies.
2

Łyżki, morselki i kantaty. Osiemnastowieczne upominki na kierę i Nowy Rok w Toruniu i innych miastach Prus Królewskich

80%
Łyczak B.
Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej
|
2012
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vol. 60
|
issue 1
33-48
EN
The annual by-election to the Town Council and allocating positions to particular members of the Council, called kiera, were lavishly celebrated in the towns of Royal Prussia. The occasion was usually marked with a feast, for which special delicacies were ordered. In Elbląg (Elbing) and Toruń (Thorn) it was customary that apothecaries prepared special sweets (called morselki) for the occasion; wines were also specially ordered. In Gdańsk (Danzig) the municipal cantor was commissioned to compose a commemorative cantata every year. In Toruń councillors were presented with silver spoons, which was not practiced in other towns of Royal Prussia. The custom can be traced back to 1703, when it probably started. Apart from the time of kiera, when all the sixteen members of the Council received gifts, the four mayors and the two treasurers were entitled to additional gifts on the New Year. Spoons and other pieces of cutlery were ordered at the best goldsmiths’ workshops. This custom was copied by the councillors of Chełm, who started to treat themselves to such gifts in 1742, but the sums spent for them were smaller than in Toruń. The custom survived in Toruń until 1772. After the first partition of Poland the town suffered a period of economic decline due to the customs policy of Prussia, which was aimed at suppressing local trade and crafts in order to force the town to join the state of Frederick II.
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