Gift-Giving and Exchange as an Important Element in Japanese Society - Essay Example

Discuss, with detailed examples from your ethnography how the study of gifts and exchange may reveal information about the ritual ways in which people in a society express relationships. Gift-giving is one of the important elements of the Japanese culture. Japanese show respect and a willingness to develop and maintain friendships through the exchange of gifts. According to Alston and Takei, offering gifts is one way to indicate a wish to develop relationship in a culture that has difficulty in speaking forthrightly. It has roots in the traditional Japanese value of the obligation fundamentally to the parents, which must be repaid through respect, filial piety and obedience. Along with the Confucian values, wrote Ilchman, Katz and Queens, in particular the value of humaneness, such obligation extend outwards to teachers, relatives, close neighbors and business associates. (p. 171) Japanese companies, for instance, allocate funds for equitable compensation to employees for ceremonial events or kankonsosai. (Roberson 1998, p. 73) Such importance given to the exchange of gifts allows the act to pervade in Japanese ceremonies and customs that is why it reveals a wealth of information in regard to Japanese rituals. There are four classifications of occasions or instances when gift-giving is required among the Japanese: life-cycle ceremonies, gift-giving occasions regulated by the calendar, emergencies that cause sudden deprivations and special events that call for prompt gift-giving. (Lebra, p. 98) These occasions are diverse and are consistently well defined, and most importantly for this study, associated with particular rituals. They also entail Japanese principles that are the basis of rituals and ceremonies. These include the concepts of obligation, duty, reciprocity, among others. Life-Cycle Rituals Gift-giving is a prominent element in life-cycle ceremonies or “rite of passage” events and therefore provide a wealth of insights on the rituals that define these stages and the growth phases between them. As it is, people are preoccupied with gift-giving in birth, marriage and death of people as well as in education, wedding anniversary, etc. In so many instances, gift-giving becomes a means of exchange –a kind of exchange that articulates obligation. For instance, during a wedding there is normally a table outside of the hall where the wedding takes place. Young people sat behind this table and they are tasked to collect the money contained in envelopes given by arriving guests. What is interesting, perhaps for most foreigners, is that the amount contained in the envelope is strictly recorded along with the name of its giver. The reason for this record is that the list of names and the corresponding amount kept will be the basis of a return gift once a wedding happens on the side of the giver or an occasion occurs requiring gift-giving. This practice was documented by Susan Sered (1999), who found for herself that the value of the return gift is calculated in light of the expected size of the gift received. (p. 107) Record-keeping of gifts are not only applicable to weddings but on other occasions such as funerals. During funerals, the act of grieving and receiving gift at the same time appear inappropriate, the Japanese mutual-aid system emerges when neighbors or friends volunteer to receive the gifts in behalf of the bereaved. Companies also offer consolatory gifts and payments to the family of employees who died. (Roberson, p. 73) The size of future gifts, as Sered have underscored, is adjusted in accordance with the past history of gift-giving between two households. (p. 107) This “accounting” of gifts depicts how Japanese sees and values obligation and the concept of reciprocating favors and good deeds. This is a well-established system wherein a possible mistake on the gift-given could result to a dent in honor or affront to other households. As one would find, the obligation to accept, once a gift is given, is as binding as the obligation to give and to reciprocate. Chugen and Seibo Chugen is an example of a gift-giving occasion dictated by the calendar. This occurs at during midsummer and Japan becomes engrossed in buying, giving and receiving gifts. The occasion is concerned with the special care and sacrifice to the dead. Seibo, on the other hand, happens at the end of the year when people give gifts as a token of a year gained. Both of these gift-giving occasions, according to Lebra, calendrically tie in with the time workers receive a special semiannual bonus, which often amounts to two or more months, salary. (p. 98) This example in Japanese gift-giving underscore how the exchange has become so institutionalized. There is the so-called bonasu-bumu or the bonus boom in the department stores where chugen and seibo gifts could be bought. Department stores are heavily stocked with gifts for different occasions during these period of chugen and seibo. The most common items are tea, dried seaweed, alcoholic drinks, canned fruit, fruit juice, foodstuffs and soaps. This range of gifts highlights the fact that there are specific gifts for important events and feasts. Chugen and seibo emphasize the fact that right giving the right gifts to the right people during the right time and occasion is an important social obligation in Japan. Ritualistic Expressions In examining the Japanese gift-giving, one could also understand the relations of hierarchies at work in the society. This is shown by ritualistic expressions in the act. An example was cited by Natsuko Tsujimora: Tumaranai mono-desu-ga doozo. (Please take this insignificant thing.) (p. 405) The above expression that accompany gift-giving highlights the Japanese penchant for indirect speech acts. Here, the intention is to be modest and polite toward the person who receives the gift. In the example given, the speaker does not believe that the gift is insignificant at all but that the expression was merely a way of humbling herself or himself. The ritualistic expression, wrote Tsujimora, is viewed as a part of a socio-cultural norm, which reflects the relevance of indexing a social hierarchy. Furthermore, it is customary to refuse an offered gift several times to appear humble and appreciative of the gesture. The dono3 is expected to ignore this symbolic gesture of refusal and insist on giving the “insignificant” gift. (Alston and Takei p. 54) Another illustration that shows the relationship between gift-giving and rituals that characterize social hierarchies is found the New Year gift-giving customs. Here, material offerings are presented from inferior to superiors while spiritual offerings are offered by superiors to inferior. For instance, gifts are given by workers to their bosses, students to their teachers, patients to their doctors, living people to ancestral deities. On the other hand, elders give money to younger family members as some form of transfer of power that the elders received from the deity. According to Rupp: Giving at the New Year not only reflects and reinforces relations of hierarchy but also renews them. This is one reason why symbols of life and reproduction associated with New Year’s celebration are also central to the rituals surrounding marriage. (p. 122) Other Gift Etiquettes During the times of emergencies, serious illnesses, accidents, fire or major robbery, relatives and friends give gifts to the victims called mimai as economic aid for recovery. The rituals of mutual-aid system could be explored in this case. This act again reflects the repayability principle at work in Japanese society. With the reciprocal relationship expected, specific gifts are repaid by counter gifts. A mimai gift, in this case, may be repaid by inviting the giver to a celebration in the event of recovery. Gifts and repayability are also important factors in the way people socialize such as visiting a friend’s house. The Japanese people do not usually invite people because part of the social etiquette is to bring gift during the visit. An empty-handed visitor, wrote, Lebra, may be criticized for his ignorance of etiquette and so it would appear for people to impose on others if he or she extends an invitation to visit. (p. 98) The Gift The gift itself is also guided by rituals that underscore its importance and specific significance. For instance, Alston and Takei recounted: Gifts are often given in pairs, to show completeness such as in pairs of male-female, yin-yang, heaven and earth, and his-and-hers objects. Gifts do not come in fours or in nines. The word for four, shi, sounds also like death while nine (ku) sounds like the words “suffering” and “choking.” (p. 54) There a number other rules that govern gift-giving starting from wrapping until the way it is to be unwrapped. This elaborate ritual on gift-giving itself underscores the importance and seriousness of this tool in human relations in Japanese society. A case in point is the ritual on wrapping. Natalie Avella found that wrapping can be used to symbolize the hierarchical distance between the giver and receiver. To quote: The more layers that are used, the greater the social distance between the giver and recipient. A gift to an employer, for instance, will be wrapped more elaborately, with more layers, than a gift to a child or a close friend. (Avella, p. 109) The specific system of giving gift, especially in the context of sharing blessing with others, is called omiyage. Omiyage gifts may be in the form of souvenirs or mementos brought back by those who travelled overseas or those brought back from visits on famous and distant shrines. It is a matter of courtesy to bring presents with whom one is closely associated. This practice is also carried out within business rituals. If one is working for a company, for example, one finds that Japanese workers would bring small gifts after embarking on short trips. Foreign business people must also learn this omiyage system in order to cultivate good relations with Japanese business and eventually succeed in doing business in Japan. Ian Melville (1999) recommended businessmen, for instance, to bring a small stock of omiyage for those they have close contact with. According to him, such things as beef jerky or even wine is extreme useful in order to successfully work with their Japanese counterparts. (p. 181) Feasts Holding a feast is one of the most common ways for repaying gifts that were given in association with a ceremony. For example, during the first birthday of a child, the feast and the ceremony are considered as immediate repayments to the gift given on the occasion. If this is considered to be wanting or more than a little modest, the giver would be given a hand-carried gift or a better-matched gift in the future. Anyway, the feast would always include rice-cakes. The significance of this is told by Joy Hendry (1989) in the book, Becoming Japanese: The baby’s first birthday is sometimes celebrated in a special way, however, especially if it has learned to walk before that time. This is said to be an inauspicious accomplishment since it suggests that the child will wander away when it grows up, so a large rice cake is tied to the precocious baby’s back to make it fall down. (p. 37) Conclusion As one sees, gift-giving is an end in itself since the tribute required generally comes down to serious matters and symbolic rituals such as rites of passage, the ceremonials of etiquette, among others. Since gift and exchanges are central to these events, they highlight the rituals specifically those that are uniquely Japanese. Finally, the elaborate exchange etiquette in Japan revealed information on the Japanese rituals because, fundamentally, it is defined by rules of obligation, indebtedness and duty. These three rules govern the unique Japanese human relations system and the numerous rituals used to reinforce them. Gift-giving and exchange continue to function as an important element in Japanese society. It has been pivotal in mapping the fields of hierarchical relations such as in social, economic and political arena, among others. This is the reason why rituals are demonstrated clearly in its processes. References Alston, J and Takei, I 2005, Japanese Business Culture and Practices: A Guide to Twenty-First Century Japanese Business, iUniverse. Avella, N 2004, Graphic Japan: from woodblock and zen to manga and kawaii, Rotovision. Hendry, J 1989, Becoming Japanese: the world of the pre-school child, University of Hawaii Press. Ilchman, W Katz, S and Queen, E 1998, Philanthropy in the world's traditions, Indiana University Press. Lebra, T 1976, Japanese patterns of behavior, University of Hawaii Press. Melville, I 1999, Marketing in Japan, Elsevier. Roberson, J 1998, Japanese working class lives: an ethnographic study of factory workers, New York: Routledge. Rupp, K 2003, Gift-giving in Japan: cash, connections, cosmologies, Stanford University Press. Sered, S 1999, Women of the sacred groves: divine priestesses of Okinawa. Oxford University Press. Tsujimora, N 2007, An introduction to Japanese linguistics, Wiley-Blackwell. Read More