Wrapped gifts - Contents
- CONTENTS
- List of Figures 256
- Acknowledgements
- PREFACE
- 1. The Thesis
- 2. Fieldwork
- 2.a Methodological constraints
- 3. Outline of the Thesis
- Chapter 1
- Introduction
- 2. Japanese gift exchange
- 2.a Types and classification of gifts
- 2.b The value of a gift and repayability
- 2.c Redundancy
- 3.a The concept of wrapping: origata and tsutsumi
- 3.b Ritual wrapping
- 3.c Pragmatic and symbolic wrapping
- 3.d Auspicious, inauspicious and white wrapping
- 4. The fieldwork location: Kamikatsu and rural gifts
- 4.a Kamikatsu as a mountain furusato (home village)
- 4.b The ideal communist regime
- 4.c Some information on the history and population of Kamikatsu
- 4.d Depopulation problems and the birth of the town
- 4.e Ecology, agriculture and tourism
- 5. Understanding contemporary Japan: Anthropological representations and the problem of gift exchange
- 6. Conclusions
- Chapter 2
- Problems and perspectives in the analysis of gift exchange and gift-wrapping
- 1. Gifts and commodities
- 2. Giri and the problems of obligation in Japan
- Chapter 3
- Gift exchange as the source of rural distinctiveness
- 1. Gifts of thanks, gifts of help, gifts of participation, small humble gifts
- 2. Households, village Shrine and town buildings: the main arenas for gift exchange
- 2.a Gifts and some statistics on the annual household gift economy
- Non-traditional households with children traditional households with children
- Average type (origin or donor) Average type
- 2.b Return gifts
- 2.c The classification of reciprocity
- 2.d Considerations on wrapping
- 3. Case study: mochinage (throwing cakes)
- 4.Conclusions
- Chapter 4
- Ways of knowing about auspiciousness and inauspiciousness
- 1. Inauspiciousness and pollution
- 1.a Pollution, poison and funeral gifts
- 2. Auspicious, inauspicious: definitions and gifts
- 2.a Sources of auspiciousness: medetai
- 2.b Sources of inauspiciousness: Imikotoba, yakudoshi, katagae,and other perceptions of inauspiciousness
- 2.c Belief in auspiciousness and inauspiciousness
- 3. Wrapping as an auspicious force
- 3.a Throwing and wrapping in funerary rituals
- 3.b Unborn children
- 3.c Pregnancy and the child as an auspicious force
- 3.d Gifts to the child: prestations and gender achievement in childhood
- 4. Conclusions
- Chapter 5
- Actions of wrapping and unwrapping. The ritual structure of giving auspicious gifts
- 1. Matsuri
- 2. Strength, age, gender and ritual roles
- 3. Aki matsuri. Ritual structures and participation: wrapping and unwrapping time, gifts and events
- 3.a Preparing the festivals: unwrapping the Shrine
- 3.b Unwrapping the layers of the Shrine
- 3.c Unwrapping and wrapping the deity: the power of gifts in attracting the deity into social life
- 3.d Wrapping the deity into the mikoshi
- 3.e The mikoshi returns: inverting the process - unwrapping the deity out of the mikoshi - wrapping up the Shrine
- 4. Conclusions. ‘Untouched’ package
- 1. Groups and day to day co-operation: thanks gifts
- 1.a Uchi and gift giving patterns
- 2. Work and kinship ties: notions of tradition and obligation
- 3. Wrapping commodities and the morality of debt
- 4.a Valentine giri and hontou gifts
- <6. Conclusions
- Chapter seven
- 1. Matchiotsukuru and the rural dream. The contextual character of household-town relations
- 1.a The production of the town’s image. Appropriation of the environment
- 2. Appropriation of production
- 2.a Appropriation of festivals and the making of tradition
- 3. Conflicts in making the town. Gifts and conflict resolution
- 3.a Obligation and ambiguous commodities
- 3.b Case study: Elders’ day, gifts to the community and the concept of respect and compensation