The Gift in Sixteenth-Century France (The Curti Lectures) [Hardcover]

Natalie Zemon Davis (Author)

Book Description

Series: Curti Lecture Series | Publication Date: November 9, 2000

Must a gift be given freely? How can we tell a gift from a bribe? Are gifts always a part of human relations—or do they lose their power and importance once the market takes hold and puts a price on every exchange? These questions are central to our sense of social relations past and present, and they are at the heart of this book by one of our most interesting and renowned historians.
In a wide-ranging look at gift giving in early modern France, Natalie Zemon Davis reveals the ways that gift exchange is crucial to understanding alliance and conflict in family life, economic relations, politics, and religion. Moving from the king’s bounty to the beggar’s alms, her book explores the modes and meanings of gift giving in every corner of sixteenth-century French society. In doing so, it arrives at a new way of considering gifts—what Davis calls "the gift register"—as a permanent feature of social relations over time. Gift giving, with its own justifications and forms in different periods, can create amity or lead to quarrels and trouble. It mixes the voluntary and the obligatory, with interested bribery at one extreme and inspired gratuitousness at the other.
Examining gifts both ethnographically (through archives, letters, and other texts) and culturally (through literary, ethical, and religious sources), Davis shows how coercive features in family life and politics, rather than competition from the market, disrupted the gift system. This intriguing book suggests that examining the significance of gifts can not only help us to understand social relations in the past, but teach us to deal graciously with each other in the present.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

From the moment of birth, when peasant women in Normandy would arrive with cider, honey and nutmeg for the new mother, gift-giving represented a pervasive form of bonding in the 16th century. God's generosity was to be reflected in the generosity of humankind, and gratitude in gift systems helped to hold society together, it was said, as stones were cemented in a good building. In analyzing these "complicated and multivalent" practices, Davis (professor emerita of history at Princeton) brings to the forefront the anthropological perspective implicit in a good deal of recent European cultural history, including her own Return of Martin Guerre. Certain passages will bring a wry smile of familiarity: bad gifts, we are told, might "explode into unbridled and violent rivalry," while the "gnaw of obligation ate into the psychological economy of people in many echelons." But in many respects, this was a culture profoundly unlike our own; in it villagers might be expected to arrive at the lawyer's office with gifts of rabbits, eggs and chickens ("It would have been unthinkable for them to arrive empty-handed"). The constant message here is that this was a society whose sense of community has been almost entirely lost in the contemporary world. But as Davis suggests, there are important lessons here for our individualistic and consumerist society. Her book, though laden with the language of the academy, is a valuable addition to the current historical discourse on the importance of courtesy and civility. B&w illus. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Davis (history, emerita, Princeton Univ.; The Return of Martin Guerre) here investigates the use of gifts in 16th-century France. She looks at gifts on all levels of society, from presents to a king to alms given to beggars. The author shows that gifts might be used as part of the life cycle (acknowledging birth, marriage, and death) and part of religious celebrations. In addition, she looks at gifts that aided trade agreements and political arrangements as well as gifts that were used to smooth relations between different classes and statuses. Some gifts brought happiness and peace, while others brought quarrels, jealousy, and obligation. Davis sees "the gift register" as a feature that has come into society over time. By studying gifts and understanding social relations, she feels that we can aspire to giving gifts out of generosity in the present and future. This book is thorough and well researched, using sources from archives, letters, literature, and religious materials. Recommended for academic history collections.DMary Salony, West Virginia Northern Community Coll., Wheeling
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press; 1 edition (November 9, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0299168808
• ISBN-13: 978-0299168803
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,255,463 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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