3.a Obligation and ambiguous commodities

Gifts of participation and gifts of apology are the basic items of identification and prevention of conflict. They are substantial, perhaps revealing not only a preoccupation with resolving conflict but also exposing hidden conflict. Unwrapping the character of the usefulness of such gifts and revealing the rhetoric and redundancy is problematic. During fieldwork, my closest informants received an average of twenty prestations from different events. These were always classified as ‘useful’: a box of tissue, a plastic bento box, chopsticks. Villagers acknowledge that they are ‘useful’ but that they certainly do not need these prestations. In becoming recipients of the ‘useful’ prestation, villagers also acquire the obligation to return to further events, to show their thanks for the thankfulness of the town’s office. It is interesting then to note that the conditions for the creation of obligation in capitalist societies such as Japan do not depend on the existence of a traditional gift economy, but on the capacity to mystify exchange. Wrapping the commodity with noshigami, and wrapping the explanation with politeness of service and kimochi reflect the same concern. People were coerced or persuaded to take the commodity as well as the awareness campaign as gifts, as an extension of the town office’s sense of welfare.

I want to stress the importance of coercion in commodity giving as the process that creates obligation (here obligation is a ‘relation’ rather than the quantification of debt). In the context of commodity exchange, the gift is created by coercion and persuasion through the wrapping mystification of commodities as ‘useful’ and ‘ritual’, through the use of plastic wrappers and noshigami. Conflicts in town-making are always ‘wrapped’, not only by the use of politeness but through the endorsement of a multitude of ‘useful’ commodities. All town-making events are marked by the giving of many ‘useful’ things, such as plastic bentos, organisers, towels and so on. The making of the town is a ‘positive’ and constructive enterprise in which everyone should participate for the benefit of the whole. Town-making becomes almost synonymous with image-making, producing ‘gentle’, ‘happy’, ‘traditional’ images of villagers through commodities that are wrapped in noshigami.

These ideas about conflicts of interest and the usefulness of commodities are reinforced by ideas that centre on affection and actual thanking for help. At one level, direct participation in making the town is unavoidable and unproblematic: villagers are called upon to participate, prestations are given in compensation for their attendance, wrapped commodities are given as prizes for good luck and participation in games, and the atmosphere is one of positive interaction and rejoicing in the progress of the town. Individuals who manage to achieve this goal of harmony and positiveness are regarded as good, and giving to them is regarded as giving for ‘thanks’ rather than giving for status. Simultaneously, villagers stress the idea that meetings and closeness to the symbolic centres of the town generate responsibilities. Time spent in the town’s festivals and meetings is considered fundamental in shaping the kind of relationships that individuals linked through the town will have with each other.