Theories and ethnographies on the gift (economic anthropology) Research Paper

Theories and ethnographies on the gift (economic anthropology) - Research Paper Example Therefore, gift in this context can be defined as goods and services that are exchanged with the intention of affirming a social relationship and status. Hence, gifts are a reciprocated system where citizens of any given community will be perpetually indebted to another person. Ethnographers have studied many different interpretations of the gift in traditional societies. The complicated factors of ‘the gift’ in archaic society have attracted debates throughout different fields of study. In addition, several professionals including anthropologists, sociologists, philosophers, as well as economists have researched the issue. A sense of duty bounds these relationships together although these communities may be otherwise hostile towards one another. Marcel Mauss, a French anthropologist and a sociologist, carefully studied the facts on the gift in traditional primitive societies; following Durkheim’s model on the sacred, he theorized that gifts are of a moral, religi ous, and economic nature in natural economic systems; with a sacred quality to exchange and contracts. Mauss presents the idea of a system of obligatory service provision i.e. one provides a service because it is their moral responsibility to do so, this system brings together distinguished characteristics identified based on religion, justification, and economic status. An example is doing voluntary work in the community, Hann et al. (2011) notes, â€Å"... It is groups, and not individuals, which carry on the exchange, make contracts, and are bound by obligations the person represented in the contracts are moral persons- clans, tribes and families; the groups, or the chiefs as intermediaries for the groups, confront and oppose each other† (p.50). He visualized a unique connection between the gift and the recipient and emphasized on the power embedded on the gift that would propel the recipient to reciprocate the act of giving (Mauss, 1925. p.3). With this idea, he stipulate d that the giver not only gives the gift, but part of them is also torn away from them in the process of giving. Due to this, he said that there was no complete separation of the gift from the giver (Mauss, 1925). He further argued that, what they exchange is not exclusively goods and wealth, real and personal property, and things of economic value. They exchange rather courtesies, entertainments, ritual, military assistance, women, children, dances and feasts, in which the market is merely one element and the circulation of wealth, but one part of a wide and enduring contract. Finally, although the social facts and their opposing factors take place under a voluntary guise, they are in essence strictly obligatory, and their sanction is private or open warfare. We propose to call this system of total presentation.† (Mauss, 1926) There is not only an obligation to repay gifts, but also to give and receive them willingly, to refuse to do so could mean refusing to accept the other into one's community and could cause war. However, by giving, the community shows itself as deserving and worthy of respect and generosity. Failure to give will mean to end their partnership and refuse any future gifts. Gift- giving contests have come together on this basis such as the famous North- West Coast Native American Potlatch as well as the Kula Ring in the Trobriand Islands. Malinowski also researched the Trobriand islanders, found the exchange between islanders of the Kula Ring

Avon Products Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Avon Products - Case Study Example The company faced a challenge of flattening revenues and even declining operating income. There were many factors that led to this decline, one of the issues was that the company had grown at a faster proportion than the infrastructure and talent could hold. This called for an immediate intervention to save the company from collapsing. The current CEO who was known as Jung and the executive team launched a basic restructuring of the organization in starting of 2006 (Effron, 2009). Question two Leaning and transparency model was one that was targeted to bring change in the organization. For an organization to bring in change, one of the ways to ensure that change does not impact negatively to the organization is through training of employees. By doing so, employees are able to learn new tactics to use in order to integrate with the new change. In addition, employees are able to acquire skills to enable them to cope with the new requirements of the change. The company investment in exe cutive talent is one way of implementing learning model. The company planned to refurnish new talents as a way of ensuring that the company keeps up with the latest growth of the company. The employee’s new knowledge was also to be used as a model of ensuring that they are able to sustain the current growth of the company. ... The company aim to transform the organization through establishing bodies that would oversee transparency process is another example that assisted me to identify the model. The company aim of changing the top management behavior through teaching them on how to maintain a good image of the company is an aspect that is in learning and transformation model. The company also went ahead to recognize every personnel behavior as critical to the overall success of the business. These transformations were supported by performance reviews that were aimed at keeping an eye on the individual performance (Harris, & Hartman 2001). Question three One of the evaluation information that was obtained is that there is a need to create an efficient communication channel which will ensure that organizations processes are carried out in an efficient manner (Zofi, (2011). Communication plays a great role in tackling problems that might affect the organization. Efficient communication also ensures that ther e is a good relationship between leaders and their subordinates. In addition, communication plays a great role in enabling the organization to solve any issue that might affect the organization performance. This evaluation problem was to ensure that poor communication was eradicated and leaders implement policies that would enable the top management and low ranked employees to communicate frequently an aspect that would positively impact on the performance of the employees. Lastly communication would enable leaders to assess the talent of their employees. This is an important move in ensuring that categorization of talents in the organization is done appropriately (Harris, & Hartman 2001).