Christmas and Potlach
In these days many people – mostly Christians or those living in Christian societies — celebrate the mark of Jesus’ birth or more predominantly the exchange of gifts among family members and friends. As the major season for gifts and donations Christmas is very much related to Potlach a ceremony of several native peoples of North America where the host of such a festivity demonstrates social status by giving gifts to the guests. While the article on Wikipedia discusses the transformation of those rituals through the introduction of mass-produced goods, i want to expose the fundamental ‘idea’ of increasing personal prestige by helping and supporting those people of the community that are in need. Christmas and Potlach stand here exemplarily for rituals of — nowadays temporally confined — gift economies within many cultures. Of course this is still happening, yet this behaviour seems not to be the major paradigm for social activity but rather the exception. Yet, maybe we should consider it again…
