Abstract
This chapter addresses the issue of gifts as a language of sociability. The culture of our industrial and post-industrial societies over the last centuries has largely become a culture based on mass-produced and mass-distributed objects. There is no doubt that people use these commodities as part of processes within which social and moral considerations come into play, but this is hardly explained in phenomenological terms. This chapter proposes to analyse consumption as a cultural practice, pointing out the instrumental role of commodities as a language available to social actors to express and to communicate. It highlights some aspects of the gift code between relatives, the key purpose of which is to explain how interpersonal relations are produced through the exchange of gifts between subjects, in this case linked by family ties. There is a significant degree of diversity in the exchange of gifts between relatives, encompassing emotionally charged contexts. The author conducted a qualitative research consisting of in-depth interviews and ethnography in Northern Portugal.
TopBackground
In the current chapter, the author does take due note of E. Goffman’s idea of “interaction order” as the conceptual map underlying the relationships between individuals in particular social situations, and his emphasis that interactions need not be understood as being limited to strictly conversational situations. At the same time, the author also acknowledges E. Goffman’s central idea concerning the organised and recurring nature of the interaction order, and of its precariousness and instability which gives it a substantial dynamic potential. Bearing this in mind, the author proposes to highlight some aspects of the gift code between relatives, to explain how interpersonal relations are produced within the exchange of gifts between specific individuals. The choice of relatives as the focus of observation of the code rules on the exchange of gifts results from the fact that their interactions embody a significant degree of diversity, encompassing emotionally charged contexts, as in the case of gifts exchanged between spouses. In other words, the gift code between more or less close relatives, clearly illustrates the emotional load that E. Goffman (1983) insisted on always crossing and constantly threatening the inter-relational process.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Gift Code: A set of recurring trends that express the normative schemes on the exchange of gifts. There is a social level of analysis that supports supra-individual assessments usually associated with the gender and age of the recipients, as well as the type of social relationship between the two people involved. And there are also more personal and emotional considerations. The gift code defines the type of gift considered appropriate for a specific person and also justifies the efforts required to purchase it.
Consumption as Culture: Conception of the consumption process as a set of practices socially and personally meaningful, through which commodities are re-appropriated – or re-socialised – by social actors and used with the purpose of expressing themselves and communicating. Seen as a cultural practice, consumption is, therefore, a potential means for social actors to express themselves and communicate, through which one can examine how they build values and attribute meanings.
Gift Giving Exchange: The goods offered and/or exchanged by individuals covering all gift exchange situations, and the circuits of this circulation, considering all types of gifts, either in their material version or in services, including gifts in cash. One can talk about consumption for others in the form of gift giving exchange.
Family Sociability: Networks of household relations, whose dynamics places the individuals – the relatives – in more or less defined positions of mutual obligations. One can also speak of friendship networks, of neighbourhoods, or of workmates, but in these cases, their composition depends more on elective processes.
Greater Porto Area: Metropolitan region of the city of Porto, the second largest city in Portugal, located in the north of the country.
Gifts as Relational Complements: The exchange of gifts between specific individuals used to produce and strengthen interpersonal relationships. The performances of the gifts exchanged between the individuals involved transform the gifts into vehicles for creating and strengthening interpersonal relationships