Gift-Giving Philosophy as Part of a Typological Model of Festivities

Abstract

The article explores a unique typological model of festivities as a methodological background for the gift concept analysis in the structure of festive communication. The relevance of research is recognized through correlation with such topics as “value transmission”, “social memory”, “festive culture” and “offering”. The authors of the article bring two questions to the fore: the mnemic function of a celebration and the role of a gift in value guidelines formation, i.e. the values which were communicated during festive ceremonies. The idea has been reflected in two concepts: first — in a holiday classification pattern, with examples of “explosive holiday”, “dynamic holiday” “lagging holiday” and “neutrally mnemic holiday”; second — in a hypothesis assuming that a festive communication pattern might be a subject to change through unveiling mnemic potential of a gift during a festive ceremony. The key assumptions of the article are proven through the semantic analysis of a unique artefact — a premium gold cigarette case with an image of the first Soviet coat of arms, a work by S.V. Chekhonin. N.V. Lisovskii and S.I. Aralov, who spoke for the Revolutionary Military Council of the 12th Army, awarded this case to S. Bekker, a participant in liberation battles for Kiev, in 1920. The cigarette case is considered as an offering and a gift. The authors analyse which holiday pattern the cigarette case is most likely to fit in. The novelty of research is that the authors highlight the role of a gift as a catalyst for festive communication. A gift is thought of as a cultural code of an event, value transmitter, and the very essence of a holiday idea. A gift has a great power which can either reinforce or ruin the festive communication model.

Keywords

• festive communication
• value transmission
• gift
• holiday pattern
• gift functions
• festive synergy