Unwrapping Christmas

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Unwrapping Christmas

Author : Daniel Miller
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 264 pages
Book Rating : 4.X/5 (2 download)

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Book Synopsis Unwrapping Christmas by : Daniel Miller

Download or read book Unwrapping Christmas written by Daniel Miller and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1993 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In an age of secularization and the decline of ritual, Christmas has emerged as the most promising candidate for the first global festival. It is celebrated in the Christian West as well as in many countries with either a minority or no Christian population. How is it that Christmas is not merely surviving, but actually gaining in importance? Unwrapping Christmas is the first comparative study of the Christmas phenomenon, based on direct observation of how the festival is actually celebrated in diverse social contexts. It begins by presenting general theories of Christmas and includes the first full English translation of "Father Christmas Executed" by Claude Levi-Strauss. The focus then turns to two controversial issues: the relationship between Christmas and materialism, and the debate over the place of the family in Christmas celebrations. Both of these issues are examined and interpreted in a variety of cultural contexts; including the USA, Japan, Britain, Sweden, and Trinidad. Christmas is rapidly becoming the focus for a constellation of activities including gift-giving, the marking of the seasons, and the celebration of extended family networks. This collection, the first systematic analysis of Christmas, represents a fascinating and significant contribution to understanding how and why this holiday has developed into the global festival celebrated today.

Unwrapping the Greatest Gift

Author : Ann Voskamp
Publisher : Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
ISBN 13 : 1414397542
Total Pages : 163 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (143 download)

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Book Synopsis Unwrapping the Greatest Gift by : Ann Voskamp

Download or read book Unwrapping the Greatest Gift written by Ann Voskamp and published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.. This book was released on 2014 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times Bestseller and ECPA Award Winner. Over 150,000 copies sold! Unwrap the greatest Gift with your family this Advent season! With vivid, full-color illustrations, downloadable ornaments, and moving scenes from the Bible, this book is a gift your whole family can experience each day leading up to Christmas. Devotions by Ann Voskamp, bestselling author Daily Scripture readings Discussion questions Meaningful Advent activities Beautiful illustrations Person by person, story by story, retrace the lineage of Jesus. Fall in love with Him all over again as you experience God's plan of salvation for us--from the Garden of Eden to the manger and beyond. Based on the overwhelming success of The Greatest Gift, Ann Voskamp has expanded her presentation of the timeless Advent tradition of the Jesse Tree so families can celebrate together. Each day, families can read the provided Scripture passage (in connection with the original book), engage with a specially written devotion to help children of all ages understand the Advent theme for the day, and participate in suggested activities to apply the theme.

The Greatest Gift

Author : Ann Voskamp
Publisher : Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
ISBN 13 : 1414388519
Total Pages : 278 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (143 download)

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Book Synopsis The Greatest Gift by : Ann Voskamp

Download or read book The Greatest Gift written by Ann Voskamp and published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.. This book was released on 2013-08-30 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New York Times bestselling Christmas classic. Over 250,000 books in print. An annual bestseller. Thousands of readers have already fallen in love with Ann Voskamp’s One Thousand Gifts, and this Christmas, Ann will help readers celebrate the lineage and the majesty of God’s greatest gift—Jesus Christ. In what has already become a holiday classic, Voskamp reaches back into the pages of the Old Testament to explore the lineage of Jesus via the advent tradition of “The Jesse Tree.” Beginning with Jesse, the father of David, The Greatest Gift retraces the epic pageantry of mankind, from Adam to the Messiah, with each day’s reading pointing to the coming promise of Christ. Sure to become a holiday staple in every Christian home, The Greatest Gift is the perfect gift for the holidays and a timeless reminder of the true meaning of Christmas.

The Twelve Days of Christmas

Author : Curtis G. Almquist
Publisher : Picador
ISBN 13 : 9781561012930
Total Pages : 128 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (129 download)

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Book Synopsis The Twelve Days of Christmas by : Curtis G. Almquist

Download or read book The Twelve Days of Christmas written by Curtis G. Almquist and published by Picador. This book was released on 2006 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The twelve days of Christmas follow from December 25 until January 6, the Feast of the Epiphany, the traditional date when the Magi arrived to present gifts to infant Jesus. For many, the meaning of these days is lost. By Christmas night we are saturated with the holiday hype, overfed by music and food, and may already be disappointed that the presents received are not enough. The book is not a bah humbug about Christmas customs and presents. This is simply an invitation to go deeper than the tinsel and wrappings, beyond the presents given and received, to the source of all the good gifts in life. Readers are invited to unwrap gifts that will last, praying the twelve days of Christmas.

Unwrapping the Names of Jesus

Author : Asheritah Ciuciu
Publisher : Moody Publishers
ISBN 13 : 080249630X
Total Pages : 144 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (24 download)

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Book Synopsis Unwrapping the Names of Jesus by : Asheritah Ciuciu

Download or read book Unwrapping the Names of Jesus written by Asheritah Ciuciu and published by Moody Publishers. This book was released on 2017-10-03 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How to focus on Christ during Advent Most Christians agree that Christmas is all about Jesus, yet most of us spend little time preparing our hearts to celebrate Him. Why is this? Partly because we don’t know how. In Unwrapping the Names of Jesus, Asheritah Ciuciu leads readers through the four weeks of Advent (Hope, Preparation, Joy, and Love). Each week: Begins with an interactive family devotional that equips readers to celebrate Advent together Offers five daily reflections that focus on that week's name of Jesus Includes suggestions for fun-filled family activities or service projects This devotional can be used by readers in their own personal worship times or as a tool to engage in family worship during the busy holiday season. Either way, participants will gain a greater sense of awe and wonder at who Jesus is. By focusing on the person and character of Jesus throughout the Advent season, readers will prepare their hearts so that when they admire the live nativity, sit in the candlelight service, or wake up on Christian morning, they can join the faithful who sing from the bottom of their hearts, "O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!"

The Cute and the Cool

Author : Gary Cross
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780195348132
Total Pages : 284 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (481 download)

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Book Synopsis The Cute and the Cool by : Gary Cross

Download or read book The Cute and the Cool written by Gary Cross and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2004-04-01 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The twentieth century was, by any reckoning, the age of the child in America. Today, we pay homage at the altar of childhood, heaping endless goods on the young, reveling in memories of a more innocent time, and finding solace in the softly backlit memories of our earliest years. We are, the proclamation goes, just big kids at heart. And, accordingly, we delight in prolonging and inflating the childhood experiences of our offspring. In images of the naughty but nice Buster Brown and the coquettish but sweet Shirley Temple, Americans at mid-century offered up a fantastic world of treats, toys, and stories, creating a new image of the child as "cute." Holidays such as Christmas and Halloween became blockbuster affairs, vehicles to fuel the bedazzled and wondrous innocence of the adorable child. All this, Gary Cross illustrates, reflected the preoccupations of a more gentle and affluent culture, but it also served to liberate adults from their rational and often tedious worlds of work and responsibility. But trouble soon entered paradise. The "cute" turned into "cool" as children, following their parental example, embraced the gift of fantasy and unrestrained desire to rebel against the saccharine excesses of wondrous innocence in deliberate pursuit of the anti-cute. Movies, comic books, and video games beckoned to children with the allures of an often violent, sexualized, and increasingly harsh worldview. Unwitting and resistant accomplices to this commercial transformation of childhood, adults sought-over and over again, in repeated and predictable cycles-to rein in these threats in a largely futile jeremiad to preserve the old order. Thus, the cute child-deliberately manufactured and cultivated--has ironically fostered a profoundly troubled ambivalence toward youth and child rearing today. Expertly weaving his way through the cultural artifacts, commercial currents, and parenting anxieties of the previous century, Gary Cross offers a vibrant and entirely fresh portrait of the forces that have defined American childhood.

The Oxford Handbook of Christmas

Author : Timothy Larsen
Publisher : Oxford Handbooks
ISBN 13 : 0198831463
Total Pages : 657 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (988 download)

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Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of Christmas by : Timothy Larsen

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Christmas written by Timothy Larsen and published by Oxford Handbooks. This book was released on 2020 with total page 657 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The origins of Christmas lie in an Egyptian festival on 6 January, which spread to much of the Christian world as a celebration of the birth and/or baptism of Christ and known as the Epiphany or Theophany. The church at Rome did not adopt this festival but later instituted a celebration of the nativity of Christ on 25 December, which gradually supplanted its observance on 6 January in other churches, leaving this latter occasion as a commemoration of Christ's baptism alone, or of the visit of the Magi in those churches like Rome that had not observed that date previously. This essay traces that evolution and examines the merits of the two competing scholarly theories that have sought to explain the original choice of these particular dates"--

The Unwrapping of Theodora Quirke

Author : Caroline Smailes
Publisher : Reddoor Press
ISBN 13 : 9781913062514
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (625 download)

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Book Synopsis The Unwrapping of Theodora Quirke by : Caroline Smailes

Download or read book The Unwrapping of Theodora Quirke written by Caroline Smailes and published by Reddoor Press. This book was released on 2020 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Christmas Carol meets Stranger Things in this funny, sweary and moving festive story. When 19-year old Theodora Quirke heads to work on Christmas Eve the last person she expects to find outside of her flat is St. Nicholas of Myra - the Saint people think is Santa Claus (much to Saint Nick's disgust). Given he is in full Santa suit and professing to be nearly 2000 years old Theo is wary, but St. Nick insists he is here to save her - although he isn't sure how or why. St. Nick does know that Theo is grieving however, so he shows her four scenes from her life that give her hope, but he's also had cryptic messages from the Christmas Higher Powers that lead him to begin Theo's training as the first ever female Christmas Angel - a role Theo is not sure she is cut out for. Theo's training is soon derailed by St. Nick's evil brother, filled with jealousy and spite over his brother's popularity and, with confidence dented, and saddened by society's spiraling levels of expectation and greed, St. Nick begins to falter. Theo does everything she can to defeat Nick's brother and to lift St. Nick's spirits, but as the deadline for Christmas miracles draws close, she realises she must complete them herself - but is she up to the job?

Celebrating The 12 Days of Christmas

Author : Chris Marchand
Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1532655355
Total Pages : 188 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (326 download)

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Book Synopsis Celebrating The 12 Days of Christmas by : Chris Marchand

Download or read book Celebrating The 12 Days of Christmas written by Chris Marchand and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2019-10-10 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The song "The 12 Days of Christmas" is a mainstay of the holiday season, but the practice of celebrating Christmas as a twelve-day festival fell out of fashion long ago in most cultures. In Celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas, author Chris Marchand explores the history behind the season and individual feast days from December 25 to January 6, and then offers suggestions for how you can celebrate it with your family, church, or community. Along with this, he provides answers to many of the nagging questions surrounding the holiday, such as the history behind the twelve-days song, why December 25 was chosen as the date, and what to do about its supposedly pagan origins. The challenge before us is to first help people see Christmas as a holiday that begins, rather than ends, on December 25, and then to together figure out how to reinvent Christmas in the present by learning how it was celebrated in the past.

The Wonder of the Greatest Gift

Author : Ann Voskamp
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781496427991
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (279 download)

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Book Synopsis The Wonder of the Greatest Gift by : Ann Voskamp

Download or read book The Wonder of the Greatest Gift written by Ann Voskamp and published by . This book was released on 2017-11-07 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 2016 ECPA award winner. Over 50,000 copies sold 13-inch 3D pop-up tree Devotional booklet with 25 family devotions written by Ann Voskamp 24 Christmas tree ornaments with hangers Star-shaped tree-topper Based on her bestseller Unwrapping the Greatest Gift, Ann Voskamp expands her presentation of the timeless Advent tradition of the Jesse Tree with this beautiful keepsake that can be handed down and enjoyed for generations. Each December, families can celebrate the coming of Jesus by opening the book to see a stunning 13-inch, three-dimensional Jesse Tree pop up from the page. At its foot are 25 doors, one for each day of Advent, which hide meaningful, beautifully detailed ornaments--including the Christmas star--that are ready to be hung on the tree. Also inside is a simple devotional book with a reading for each of the 25 ornaments.

Analyzing Christmas in Film

Author : Lauren Rosewarne
Publisher : Lexington Books
ISBN 13 : 1498541828
Total Pages : 559 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (985 download)

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Book Synopsis Analyzing Christmas in Film by : Lauren Rosewarne

Download or read book Analyzing Christmas in Film written by Lauren Rosewarne and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2017-12-06 with total page 559 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Film plays a vital role in the celebration of Christmas. For decades, it has taught audiences about what the celebration of the season looks like – from the decorations to the costumes and to the expected snowy weather – as well as mirrors our own festivities back to us. Films like It’s a Wonderful Life and Home Alone have come to play key roles in real-life domestic celebrations: watching such titles has become, for many families, every bit as important as tree-trimming and leaving cookies out for Santa. These films have exported the American take on the holiday far and wide and helped us conjure an image of the perfect holiday. Rather than settling the ‘what is a Christmas film?’ debate – indeed, Die Hard and Lethal Weapon are discussed within – Analyzing Christmas in Film: Santa to the Supernatural focuses on the how Christmas is presented on the deluge of occasions when it appears. While most Christmas films are secular, religion makes many cameos, appearing through Nativity references, storylines involving spiritual rebirth, the framing of Santa as a Christ-like figure and the all-importance of family, be it the Holy family or just those gathered around the dining table. Also explored are popular narratives involving battles with stress and melancholy, single parents and Christmas martyrs, visits from ghosts and angels, big cities and small towns, break-ups and make-ups and the ticking clock of mortality. Nearly 1000 films are analyzed in this volume to determine what the portrayal of Christmas reveals about culture, society and faith as well as sex roles, consumerism, aesthetics and aspiration.

Packaged Japaneseness

Author : Ofra Goldstein-Gidoni
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
ISBN 13 : 9780824819552
Total Pages : 228 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (195 download)

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Book Synopsis Packaged Japaneseness by : Ofra Goldstein-Gidoni

Download or read book Packaged Japaneseness written by Ofra Goldstein-Gidoni and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 1997-03-01 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines what is called the Ceremonial Occasions industry in Japan, in particular the commercialized production of contemporary weddings there. Based on anthropological fieldwork conducted in a wedding parlour.

Consumption and Spirituality

Author : Diego Rinallo
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 0415889111
Total Pages : 298 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (158 download)

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Book Synopsis Consumption and Spirituality by : Diego Rinallo

Download or read book Consumption and Spirituality written by Diego Rinallo and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book sheds light on the consumption of spiritual products, services, experiences, and places through state-of-the-art studies by leading and emerging scholars in interpretive consumer research, marketing, sociology, anthropology, cultural, and religious studies. The collection brings together fresh views and scholarship on a cultural tension that is at the centre of the lives of countless individuals living in postmodern societies: the relationship between the material and the spiritual, the sacred and the profane. The book examines how a variety of agents - religious institutions, spiritual leaders, marketers and consumers - interact and co-create spiritual meanings in a post-disenchanted society that has been defined as a 'supermarket of the soul.' Consumption and Spirituality examines not only religious organizations, but also brands and marketers and the way they infuse their products, services and experiences with spiritual meanings that flow freely in the circuit of culture and can be appropriated by consumers even without purchase acts. From a consumer perspective, the book investigates how spiritual beliefs, practices, and experiences are now embedded into a global consumer culture. Rather than condemning consumption, the chapters in this book highlight consumers' agency and the creative processes through which authentic spiritual meanings are co-created from a variety of sources, local and global, and sacred and profane alike.

Organizing Christmas

Author : Philip Hancock
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317269608
Total Pages : 213 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (172 download)

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Book Synopsis Organizing Christmas by : Philip Hancock

Download or read book Organizing Christmas written by Philip Hancock and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2023-08-11 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Organizing Christmas is an exploration of the organizational character of Christmas. Taking as its starting point the view that Christmas initially achieved popularity due to its potential to promote social cohesion and political stability, this book both charts and scrutinizes its global emergence as the year's preeminent economic and organizational event. Combining historical narrative, original interviews, and social scientific research and theories, it tells the story of how Christmas has come to dominate the festival landscape and how it emerged as an integral component of the global evolution of contemporary social and economic relations. From the pre-Christian celebrations and politics of the turning of the calendar year, through the power games of Elizabethan England and the wily reinvention of the season by industrious Victorians, to today’s huge economic and logistical exercise that relies on everything from global supply chains to the domestic division of labour, Organizing Christmas demonstrates how the season exemplifies the spirit and practices of industrial, and now post-industrial, modernity. As well as documenting this fact, however, Organizing Christmas also critically interrogates what has become a vast festive-industrial complex. From low-paid factory workers in Yiwu to Santa Claus performers in Kingston, readers are given a chance to consider what the cost of this global festival might be and whether it is a price worth paying. Drawing on intellectual resources ranging from Adorno and Horkheimer’s classic critique of the culture industry, thorough Böhme’s analysis of the sociomaterial production of atmospheres, to Bloch’s ‘principle of hope’, it paints a picture of Christmas as a profoundly important, if deeply contested historical, cultural and, most significantly, organizational phenomenon. Aimed at students and academics in Organization Studies, Cultural Studies, and the Sociology of Work and Employment, as well as the general reader interested in the festive season, Organizing Christmas offers a differing perspective on a subject so familiar and yet so often overlooked.

Kids' Stuff

Author : Gary Cross
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780674030077
Total Pages : 338 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (3 download)

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Book Synopsis Kids' Stuff by : Gary Cross

Download or read book Kids' Stuff written by Gary Cross and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1999-11-15 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To sort out who's who and what's what in the enchanting, vexing world of Barbies(R) and Ninja Turtles(R), Tinkertoys(R) and teddy bears, is to begin to see what's become of childhood in America. It is this changing world, and what it unveils about our values, that Gary Cross explores in Kids' Stuff, a revealing look into the meaning of American toys through this century. Early in the 1900s toys reflected parents' ideas about children and their futures. Erector sets introduced boys to a realm of business and technology, while baby dolls anticipated motherhood and building blocks honed the fine motor skills of the youngest children. Kids' Stuff chronicles the transformation that occurred as the interests and intentions of parents, children, and the toy industry gradually diverged--starting in the 1930s when toymakers, marketing playthings inspired by popular favorites like Shirley Temple and Buck Rogers, began to appeal directly to the young. TV advertising, blockbuster films like Star Wars(R), and Saturday morning cartoons exploited their youthful audience in new and audacious ways. Meanwhile, powerful social and economic forces were transforming the nature of play in American society. Cross offers a richly textured account of a culture in which erector sets and baby dolls are no longer alone in preparing children for the future, and in which the toys that now crowd the racks are as perplexing for parents as they are beguiling for little boys and girls. Whether we want our children to be high achievers in a competitive world or playful and free from the worries of adult life, the toy store confronts us with many choices. What does the endless array of action figures and fashion dolls mean? Are children--or parents--the dupes of the film, television, and toy industries, with their latest fads and fantasies? What does this say about our time, and what does it bode for our future? Tapping a vein of rich cultural history, Kids' Stuff exposes the serious business behind a century of playthings.

New Old-fashioned Ways

Author : Jack Santino
Publisher : Univ. of Tennessee Press
ISBN 13 : 9780870499524
Total Pages : 204 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (995 download)

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Book Synopsis New Old-fashioned Ways by : Jack Santino

Download or read book New Old-fashioned Ways written by Jack Santino and published by Univ. of Tennessee Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jack Santino's analysis encompasses everything from movies to romance novels, from television shows to comic books. One especially fascinating feature of this study is its examination of the packaged-foods industry and the manner in which soft drinks, beer, snack cakes, cookies, candy, and breakfast cereals are regularly repackaged to reflect particular holidays. In what becomes a central theme of the book, Santino shows how holidays give companies the opportunity to create an illusion of novelty for products that otherwise remain unchanged over time. For example, the holiday Chips Ahoy cookies or Halloween Oreos differ only in their appearance from the everyday products, but they assume a quality of uniqueness through their association with a special time of the year. Throughout the book, Santino examines the logic by which commercial culture and holidays are linked. Halloween, for instance, with its traditional symbolism of death, evil, and monsters, has served as a theme for heavy metal music and slasher films. This, in turn, has led to some interesting transmutations as one text borrows from another in the wake of a commercial success. When John Carpenter's pioneering 1978 slasher film Halloween became a box-office hit, it was perhaps inevitable that other holiday-based slasher films - New Year's Evil, April Fool's Day, and Silent Night, Deadly Night - would follow. Copiously illustrated, New Old-Fashioned Ways is at once entertaining and informative - a treat for general readers as well as an important work for scholars in a variety of fields, including communications, folklore, anthropology, sociology, and business.

Gift Giving

Author : Cele Otnes
Publisher : Popular Press
ISBN 13 : 9780879727055
Total Pages : 260 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (27 download)

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Book Synopsis Gift Giving by : Cele Otnes

Download or read book Gift Giving written by Cele Otnes and published by Popular Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gift Giving brings together 21 scholars from a variety of disciplines - including consumer behavior, communications, and sociology - who are dedicated to the understanding of what motivates gift selection, presentation, and incorporation of a gift into a person's life. The text explores the role of values in gift exchange; the influence of ethnic, generational, and subcultural differences in gift exchange; how gifts to the self are manifested; and new directions and topics in gift giving. In these essays, gift giving occasions are probed for the meanings that can be illuminated with respect to this pervasive, yet not always positive, phenomenon. For anyone interested in gift giving behavior, this volume should prove both enlightening and provocative.