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Gifts have been given and received in all eras and societies; gifts are part of a universal human exchange. The importance of creating and sustaining social bonds with the help of gifts is widely acknowledged by social scientists, not only from anthropological but also from economic, sociological, and political science perspectives. Contemporary anti-corruption campaigns, however, have led gifts to be viewed with ever-increasing suspicion, because it is feared that the social bonds created by gift giving may contaminate professional decision-making. Suspicious Gifts investigates the sensitive issue of gift exchanges and how they become an object of contention. Malin akerstro;m considers the moral dilemmas presented by bribes and gift giving as experienced by Swedish aid workers and professionals working in the public sector, business, and adoption agencies. She also deals with professionals' interaction with foreign officials or contractors. Often a gift is just that, although sometimes the gift giving may be seen by others as a bribe. akerstro;m highlights the tensions between strict regulations designed to prevent corruption with the human affection for the institution of gift giving. She argues that bribes and gifts are important social phenomena because they are windows into classic sociological and anthropological research issues concerning interaction, social control, exchange, and rituals. This unique analysis will be of keen interest to all sociologists, public officials, and professionals.
Unlock the transformative power of thoughtful giving with The Art of Giving and Receiving GIFT. This insightful guide goes beyond material exchanges, exploring the deeper emotional and spiritual meanings behind gifts. Designed for parents and caregivers, the book teaches how to instill values of generosity, gratitude, and reciprocity in children. Through engaging stories, practical tips, and reflective exercises, you'll discover how to foster a deeper appreciation for gifts based on intention and emotion rather than material value. Strengthen family bonds, nurture emotional intelligence, and learn how to turn gift-giving into a meaningful practice that enhances relationships and promotes positive energy in your home. Whether navigating peer pressure, managing unwanted gifts, or creating thoughtful exchanges, The Art of Giving and Receiving GIFT provides the tools you need to cultivate a mindset of selfless giving and heartfelt appreciation.
This is the first volume that examines dangerous gift-giving across centuries and disciplines. Bringing to the fore the subject that features as an aside in gift studies, it offers new insights into the ambivalent and troubled history of gift-giving. Dangerous, violent, and self-destructive gift-giving remains an alluring challenge for scholars almost a hundred years after Marcel Mauss’s landmark work on the gift. Globally, the notion of toxic and fateful gifts has haunted mythologies, folklores, and literatures for millennia. This book problematizes what stands behind the notion of the 'dangerous gift' and demonstrates how this operational term may help us to better understand the role and place of gift-giving from antiquity to the present through a series of case studies ranging from ancient Zoroastrianism to modern digital dating. The book develops a complex historical, cross-cultural, and multi-disciplinary approach to gift-giving that invites comparisons between various facets of this phenomenon through time and across societies. The book will interest a wide range of scholars working in anthropology, history, literary criticism, religious studies, and contemporary digital culture. It will primarily appeal to university educators and researchers of political culture, pre-modern religion, social relations, and the relationship between commerce and gifts.
If the whole of the Christian life is to be governed by the "law of love"—the twofold love of God and one's neighbor—what might it mean to read lovingly? That is the question that drives this unique book. Through theological reflection interspersed with readings of literary texts (Shakespeare and Cervantes, Nabokov and Nicholson Baker, George Eliot and W. H. Auden and Dickens), Jacobs pursues an elusive quarry: the charitable reader.
During the last decades, the world has been facing tremendous political transformations and new risks: epidemics such as HIV/Aids have had destabilizing effect on the caretaking role of kin; in post-socialist countries political reforms have made unemployment a new source of insecurity. Furthermore, the state’s withdrawal from providing social security is taking place throughout the world. One response to these developments has been increased migration, which poses further challenges to kinship-based social support systems. This innovative volume focuses on the ambiguous role of religious networks in social security and traces the interrelatedness of religious networks and state and family support systems. Particularly timely, it describes these challenges as well as social security arrangements in the context of globalization and migration. The wide range of case studies from various parts of the world that examine various religious groups offers an important comparative contribution to the understanding of religious networks as providers of social security.
What happens when the devil attacks your strength and shapes it into a weakness? J.D. Danny McCabe maintained a loving relationship with his wife for nearly twenty years before the underpinnings of their marriage, family, and world began to crumble. Their foundation had always been rooted in the mantra that trust is the bedrock of a healthy relationship. Indeed, Erin had always claimed that things wouldn't -- couldn't -- work without trust. But one day, for reasons Danny could not fathom, Erin became suspicious of his every move. Phone calls, text messages, and work emails were manufactured into proof of infidelity, drug addiction, and a network of lies. She enlisted her mother in her efforts, and together they forged the words of family, trust and honesty into a metaphorical hammer and beat him into the ground. Their accusations accumulated, twisting reality, and eventually resulting in Danny s involuntary hospitalization. Danny was pushed to the edge and was damn near ready to jump. Then, God intervened. Erin s shocking revelation, her Third Gift, lit the blind spots in his marriage that Danny had never been able to reconcile.