Every year we gather around Christmas trees, dinner tables, and birthday cakes to give each other PEI golf packages and wall art and clothing. We call them gifts, but we rarely stop to think about why we are giving gifts and where the concept of gift giving came from in the first place. Gift giving is common to almost all human cultures and actually serves a purpose in society. To learn more about why you're out at the store picking up a tie clip for your boss, read on.
Before there were stores or even craftsmen to buy items for gift giving from, there were gifts. Gifts helped early men to attract mates, allowed early women to sustain their children, and in some cases even determined the family's social status within the community. Whether humans live in a condo in Mississauga or a hut on a remote Pacific island, they give and receive gifts as a way of spreading the wealth within a community and strengthening the bonds they have with each other.
The most obvious psychological effect of gift giving is upon the person receiving the gift. The person receiving gifts has the pleasure of knowing that other people are thinking about them and that they care enough to want to make their day special. Well thought out gifts, such as a set of snow tires in Toronto for someone who has a long commute on icy roads, strengthens the recipient's faith that the people around them know who they are and what they like, meaning their bonds are strong.
Everyone knows that giving a gift benefits the recipient, but few people realize that the gift giver is also benefiting from the act of giving the gift as well. Gift giving is our chance to demonstrate that we care. It's our way of showing off that not only are we thinking of our loved ones, but that we have paid enough attention to them to know which kids room decor they would like. It's our way of showing that we care and of finding out whether the recipient values our devotion by studying their response to the gift.
Many people think that society is too materialistic and that we should do away with that sweepstake for winning a car and stop buying presents. It is reasonable to cut spending on gifts - the best gifts need not be expensive, only well thought out anyway - but cutting gift giving altogether isn't a good idea. Without gifts, we're missing out on an essential bonding aspect of our relationships as well as the opportunity to evaluate how much we care for each person on our list by ranking them in terms of importance.
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