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Giving and Social Relations: The Culture of Free Giving and its Differentiation Today

1.1. Free giving is a universal category of the human spirit, but it has different meanings and roles in different historical periods and cultures. Here I would like to show, in a sociological perspective, how it may be thought of today, with reference to processes that change its societal importance profoundly, both in terms of generalization and of differentiation. My thesis is that the free gift, after first having been placed on the margins of society in the modern period is now emerging increasingly as an indispensable element of generalized social welfare action that becomes specific and takes concrete form in an increasingly wide variety of ways. As society becomes more complex, making a gift implies possessing greater skill and choosing from a greater variety of types (one must choose which type of gift to make and then know how to do it in terms of means, purposes and rules). What we must speak about here is the differentiation and integration between the different ethics and functions of gifts. From a cultural viewpoint the central problem is definitely that of recognizing a free gift as a motor for generalized social relations, including those of exchange. This recognition is often absent, scarce or distorted. From a practical viewpoint, the problem is above all that of how giving is practised in different social organizations in which the sets of regulations (incentives and punishments) condition the opportunities that they offer and involve.