Gift Exchanging Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Gift Exchanging - Essay Example What actually this gift is It's a transfer or exchange of something voluntarily usually give to express one's love, solidarity, to express gratitude etc on any special occasion i.e. wedding, birthday, Christmas, anniversary, birth, father's day, mother's day etc The basic purpose behind this exchange of little things is to make your loved ones feel special and to make them feel that you care for them. But according to some people they are important in insecure relations. According to Caplow, Theodore. 1982. Christmas gifts and kin networks. Sociological Review, "What the ethnographic literature on gift giving does suggest is that ritual gift giving in any society is a method in dealing with relationships that are important bur insecure"1 Well now the culture has become advanced and as a result the gift exchange is no more a one way process but has taken the form of cycle which involves obligations to give, to receive, and to return. Endorse may exist to induce people to give, disapproval or loss of prestige resulting from a failure to do so. We can call it a moral norm but it varies from country to country for instance in Taiwan gifts like gold pen, imported liquor, gifts related to base ball, perfume, magazine subscription and anything high-tech is appreciated . In western world exchanging gifts in holiday seasons is a custom and if you become fed up of exchanging gifts people will suppose that you are a selfish person. Christmas gifts are other important features of American society. According to Caplow, Theodore, 1982 " Relationships with kin being more valued then other affiliations, it is not surprising that so much efforts goes into reinforcing them by ritual gift giving"2.. (Christmas gifts and kin networks. Sociological Review) In Japan you have to give a gift to a person in order to show respect, friendship or appreciation and in case you are meeting a person for the very first time it is necessary to exchange gifts. Moreover it is considered a rude behavior to give a gift to an individual in a group and ignore others. Another interesting fact about Japanese gift exchanging culture is that they avoid giving gifts in sets of four as the word "four" in Japanese is "shi," which is also associated with the word for death and pens are considered to be the very appropriate gift for your colleague. In Korea gifts between business associates are considered as the symbol of appreciation and the presenting expensive gift is a custom but don't present an expensive gift if the receiver is not financially strong enough to return the gift of same worth. 4 numbers is considered unlucky in Korea as well. Koreans Give and receive the gifts with both hands. Korean opens the gift in the presence of the one who presented them the gift. Chinese people often avoid exchanging expensive gifts. They avoid giving gifts in odd number as they relate it to loneliness and separation. Umbrellas and Clocks are also not considered as good gifts in Chinese civilization. Taiwan had even more interesting custom that is they avoid giving gifts with a label "made in Taiwan". They also avoid giving clocks, sweat cakes, umbrellas, scissors, mirrors, fans and hand towels as well. Business gifts are also very popular in Taiwan's culture. Moreover it is customary to reciprocate a gift with one of similar value. Numbers also play an important role in selecting gifts for example: in china 8 and

English Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 69

English - Essay Example The freedom to speech and communication is a universally accepted provision within the modern day confines of democracy though the government and other oversight bodies are charged with the mandate to regulate the limits to this freedom. The government or the other regulatory bodies have the capacity to enforce regulation prohibiting publication of a piece of literary work such as a poem, thematic play or any personal declared piece of information upon establishing that the information being conveyed is detrimental to a country’s or institutions welfare and this define censorship. Nevertheless, there exists varying opinions between people in favor for or against censorship as supported by individual experience or perception of the same. I highly appreciate the government’s role in controlling and managing the freedom of expression as is provided for within our constitution. However, I highly disregard her role to censor the public for selfish gains or order to condone practices that are against ethics and morality as it happened through my own experience. My theatre group happened to be shortlisted the best student in provincial drama festivals in the category of High school competitions back in the year 2010. We had presentation of a play that had the theme of the deep rootedness of corruption within the governance structure of a hypothetical country though in real sense that was a direct representation of our country. The event that had lead to the script write choice of the theme had been a just recently concluded election where one ethnic community (and which had previously made the better part of the government) won the presidency as well as the majority representation in the national assembly. Through the play, we captured how this community and politics had shaped the institutions of the country to be more or less a communal structure and had over two-thirds of all-powerful