Jaidan Brass - Gift-Giving (12/04)

   I found gift-giving to be one of the most interesting topics this semester because of just how much I've thought of it. Modern society has often turned gift-giving into an exchange. If we give a gift, the giver often expects something back, and the receiver often expects to have to give something in return. Not only in modern society but in the past too. In Ancient Greek, wealthy families had guest-friendship with people outside of their city-state. A family would offer hospitality for the other's stay, which began an alliance or network based on this guest-friendship. Guest-friendships would be expected to host the person or the family that had given they hospitality before. And the closest guest-friendships would be the places they ran off to if they were exiled from their original polis. Though true friendships might have been built, it doesn't change the fact that it was more of an exchange than it was true hospitality.  

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