THE MAGIC OF THE NEW YEAR GIFT: why we do it year after year
Photo by Tijana Drndarski on Unsplash
Christmas and New Year holidays are unthinkable without gifts. This tradition seems so organic and natural to us that we hardly ever stop to consider why and for what reason we observe it. So what do we actually know about this ordinary and at the same time unique phenomenon?
MARCEL MAUSS: THE MAN WHO KNEW EVERYTHING ABOUT THE GIFT
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f course, the most important thing about a gift is not its material aspect at all, but the emotion and the relationships that stand behind the gifted object. It was the French sociologist Marcel Mauss who was the first to draw attention to this. In 1925, he published the book Essays on the Gift, in which he explored the complex of ideas related to gift-giving among American Indians and the tribes of the Pacific islands. Subsequent researchers of this phenomenon — such as Claude Lévi-Strauss, Jacques Derrida, and Mary Douglas — relied precisely on this work.
Essentially, Mauss drew a clear line between commerce in its Western form and the act of gift-giving, associated in particular with the potlatch — an Indian gift-giving festival that served as a catalyst for strengthening social stability. The social system, which he called the «system of total services», is sustained by the act of gift-giving. To describe how this works, Mauss resorted to the metaphor of a potter’s wheel: such a system of consumption represents a kind of cycle of constant giving that maintains balance and peace in relationships between people and groups.
A GIFT IS NOT ALTRUISM, BUT THE AMPLIFICATION OF «HAU»
In the potlatch, the giver and the recipient constantly strive to outdo each other in the value of the gift. However, there is nothing altruistic about the potlatch. In fact, it is an intense struggle for status and position in the hierarchy, but without bloodshed or killing. Something similar happens, for example, during a game of chess. If the Indian who receives a gift is unable to surpass the giver, they receive «checkmate». Victory in the potlatch becomes a symbol of the winner’s dominance and control not only over the specific loser, but also over a generalized Other, understood in a mystical-philosophical sense. This Other may be a spirit, a person, or a group.
A gift possesses a special spiritual energy — «hau». The more significant the gift, the stronger its «hau», and the greater the giver’s control over the Other. If you have fed and watered your fellow tribespeople with unprecedented generosity, such a gift will have very powerful «hau». And no one will doubt that you are the boss! Perhaps this does not work in quite the same way for people belonging to Western civilization. But when you set the Christmas table this year, welcome guests, and pay return visits, remember «hau».
THE BEST IS THE MOST GENEROUS!
Intuition, entrenched in the depths of our subconscious since ancient times, suggests that the most significant and valuable person for society is the most generous one. It is not the smartest, the richest, or the most famous who holds the greatest power, but the most generous. Of course, today things are different in Western societies. Power there is based on a completely different principle — on ownership of things rather than on giving. Perhaps this is the main boundary separating the conditional «savages» from conditional «civilization». When Columbus landed on one of the Caribbean islands, the Indians presented him with what they considered most valuable — beads, fruit, and tobacco leaves. But Columbus likely did not even understand that this was a gift and simply threw this nonsense overboard. He was interested in possessing real wealth, not in a symbolic gift.
WHY COLUMBUS DID NOT UNDERSTAND THE INDIANS
It should be emphasized that the Indians were neither savages nor madmen. They perfectly understood the real value of a thing as such, and ownership of it had a symbolic character for them. But the European view of the world was different. The entire history of the Western world is a history of wars over property: land, resources, cities, trade routes. For the Indians, an unambiguous reason for war was the refusal to accept as a gift someone else’s property endowed with strong «hau». As for property as such — that is, lacking symbolic meaning and, accordingly, deprived of «hau» — the Indians were indifferent to it.
Therefore, such «excess» items were often burned, and in this form they symbolized wealth and power. Prince Florizel from Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel was not an Indian. But by getting rid of the diamond, he acted in a purely Indian manner. At the same time, Mauss points out that as a phenomenon, the potlatch is by no means unique. Various forms of «disposing» of wealth for the sake of social peace and stability can be found among the ancient Romans, the Germans, and the Hindus.
THE MODERN CULTURE OF DEPENDENCE IS DIFFERENT!
Before the emergence of Western systems of commerce and trade, analogues of the potlatch can be found in human history in considerable numbers. But modern humanity — homo economicus in Mauss’s terminology — is quite different. How many real, not fictional, Western multimillionaires, aristocrats, oligarchs, and capitalists do you know who could act like Prince Florizel? Of course, they would never behave in such a wild way, because they are not archaic savages, but modern and civilized people.
Exceptions, of course, do exist, but in general even modern philanthropy hardly resembles a potlatch, since it often functions as a way of avoiding tax payments and, therefore, as a form not of exchange and gift, but of the accumulation of property and wealth. Capitalism is a particular version of a culture of dependence and mutual ties. We know that it is historically conditioned, and that at one time it did not exist. And this means that at some point capitalist relations will be replaced by a culture of dependence organized on the basis of an entirely different worldview foundation.
THE MAGIC OF THE GIFT HAS NOT DISAPPEARED!
And yet, even in today’s cultural space there exists a zone free from capitalist relations — the space of the holiday: birthdays, Christmas, New Year. Not every thing can be given as a gift, because the gifts we give each other are not simply things, but something endowed with socially constructed symbolic value. Gift-giving is always a magical act, belonging to cultural universals. Therefore, alongside its material and aesthetic value, we subconsciously recognize its magical value as well.
There is no need to fear the magical in this case. A gift is «white magic», since it is presented with good intentions and wishes of goodwill. In any case, it is always a rupture of everyday life, and thus an entry into the sacred. A gifted object always bears the imprint of the giver’s character traits, a part of their soul and energy. As a rule, sacred objects — and everything that is considered «holy» — are not traded. Have you noticed that selling a gifted item is considered improper, and that even the very idea of trading gifts causes a certain inner discomfort?
GIVING IS MORE PLEASANT THAN RECEIVING!
As in ancient times, the magic of the modern gift lies in its ability to connect people. A gift is a sign of affection and of certain mutual «emotional» obligations. That is why it is always welcome. Moreover, as modern research shows, people enjoy giving much more than receiving. Usually, when a happy event is repeated, our feeling of happiness diminishes. Psychologists call this hedonic adaptation. Ed O’Brien (Booth School of Business, University of Chicago) and Samantha Kassirer (Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University) found that the only exception to this rule is gift-giving. In this case, the level of happiness does not decrease — or decreases only very slightly — specifically for the givers.
On the eve of the New Year and Christmas holidays, you have a wonderful opportunity to experience for yourself how the magic of the gift works. According to statistics, on average, a person walks about 8 kilometers to buy gifts for loved ones. Huxley wishes you a happy journey and a joyful New Year mood!
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