A Cultural History of Gift Giving
Why do we spend so much time every year pulling our hair out over finding the perfect birthday present for a new love interest or draining our savings account to buy gifts for our children? It turns out gift giving has certain psychological benefits for the giver, and the act of gift giving has complex societal significance. The history of gift giving can shed some light on this interesting and ancient practice, and why we still go through the pains to keep it an important part of our lives.
An Evolutionary Advantage
It turns out that gift giving might have helped early humans survive, and in this way became an ingrained part of our psychology. Early women who were the most giving with their resources, be it food, animal pelts, or whatever, had a better chance of sustaining their young and helping their family thrive. Men who weren’t afraid to share their resources were better at attracting a partner and passing on their genes. For early humans, gift giving might have had this hidden self-interested aspect, which led to it becoming a widespread human trait.
A Cultural Tool
It’s not only modern-day societies with their disposable incomes that indulge in massive amounts of gift giving every year. Primitive, native cultures have their own form of gift giving, called potlatch, that is unconnected to any commercial calls for spending. In potlatch ceremonies, families give away many of their possessions and resources to others in the clan—the more extreme the giving, the higher the social status that family receives. These complex ceremonies have been going on for thousands of years, and current day researchers are finally getting down to the nitty gritty of what giving means for our psychology and our societal bonds.
An Important Social and Psychological Tool
Current research keeps pointing to gift giving as a very important way to strengthen social bonds and to improve psychological well-being. It turns out that the old saying “It’s better to give than to receive,” is right, at least on a psychological level. Gift giving lets the giver get into the recipient’s head for a little while, and see what is important to them. It’s crucial for validating social bonds and the importance of certain relationships.
Gift giving is probably playing an important role in your social life, even if you don’t know it; psychologists liken the act of making a gift list and buying presents to arraying the people and relationships in your life by order of importance. Giving gifts makes you evaluate those bonds, and decide which are worth strengthening and which are not.
While that might sound rather harsh, other research on pet owners and their pets points to the truly philanthropic nature of gift giving. These pet owners give their pets thoughtful gifts, even when the pets have no way of reciprocating in kind; such selflessness points to the innate service in gift giving and the psychological pleasures and benefits it bestows on the giver.
Source:
A Gift that Gives Right Back? The Giving Itself. (2007) Tara Parker-Pope. The New York Times.