Women And The Gift

Recent inquiries into the concept of the gift have been largely male-dominated and thus have ignored important aspects of the gift from a woman's point of view. In the light of philosophical work by Mauss, Lévi-Strauss, Derrida, and Bataille, Women and the Gift reflects how women respond to the notion of the gift and relationships of giving. This collection evaluates and critiques previous work on the gift and also responds to how women view care, fidelity, generosity, trust, and independence in light of the gift.

A practical, user-friendly guide for women seeking focus and calm in the midst of life's storms. Overwhelmed by the demands of family, work, and multiple responsibilities, many women find themselves feeling scattered, and distracted. In this eye-opening book, co-founder and CEO of the Mindsight Institute, Caroline Welch takes readers on a mindfulness journey to help them de-stress and cultivate inner peace. According to Welch, you do not need countless hours sitting in silence to be more present in your life--the key is to practice mindfulness wherever you are and whenever you can. The Gift of Presence guides readers in developing four innate capacities we all possess that will allow us to become more resilient and centered in our lives--even when life is throwing all that it has at us: Presence: the ability to remain firmly in the present moment; to be fully aware of what's happening as it's happening. Purpose: the personal meaning that gets us going and gives direction to our lives. Pivoting: an openness to change that allows you to switch direction if that is what is needed. Pacing: the awareness that it is impossible to do everything we want or need to do all at once; the ability to take life one step at a time. This life-changing book reveals that you already hold in your hands the keys to a more harmonious life--you simply need to look within.

In the most original and ambitious synthesis yet undertaken in Melanesian scholarship, Marilyn Strathern argues that gender relations have been a particular casualty of unexamined assumptions held by Western anthropologists and feminist scholars alike. The book treats with equal seriousness—and with equal good humor—the insights of Western social science, feminist politics, and ethnographic reporting, in order to rethink the representation of Melanesian social and cultural life. This makes The Gender of the Gift one of the most sustained critiques of cross-cultural comparison that anthropology has seen, and one of its most spirited vindications.

In a culture that exalts the caveman-like qualities of masculinity, most women have stopped expecting anything more. Young men are taught to view women as slaves to their self-centered desires. More than ever, men need to know that they can rise above this sad mediocrity. They desperately need someone to recognize their potential for blending courage and kindness, strength and spiritual sensitivity. With its riveting vision of Christ-centered manhood, God's Gift to Women shows young men how to become the heroic, selfless knight that every woman dreams about. Buried Inside Every Young Man Is the Potential to Change the World Deep within the rugged soul of every young man, there is a warrior in search of his sword and a poet in search of his pen. But heroic, prince-like masculinity is something most women only dream of in today’s perverse and self-serving world. With contagious passion and boldness, Eric Ludy challenges you to forsake modern male mediocrity for Christ-built, warrior-poet manhood—manhood that will capture the heart of a woman and change the course of history.

This book introduces the special dynamics of women and their close relationships with the gift in both past and contemporary religious settings. Written from a cross-cultural perspective, it challenges depictions of women’s roles in religion where they have been relegated to compliance with specifically designated gendered attributes. The different chapters contest the resultant stereotypes that deny women agency. Each chapter describes women as engaged in an aspect of religion, from that of ritual specialists, to benefactors and patrons, or even innovators. The volume examines topics such as sainthood and sacrifice so as to refine these ideas in constructive ways that do not devalue women. It also examines the meaning of the term “gift” today, embracing the term in both figurative and literal ways. Such a collection of diverse women’s writings and activities provides a significant contribution to their quest for recognition, and also suggests ways this can be understood and realized today.

This book analyzes why the most influential novelists of the long eighteenth century centered their narratives on the theory and practice of gift exchange. Throughout this period, fundamental shifts in economic theories regarding the sources of individual and national wealth along with transformations in the practices of personal and institutional charity profoundly altered cultural understandings of the gift's rationale, purpose, and function. Drawing on materials such as sermons, conduct books, works of political philosophy, and tracts on social reform, Zionkowski challenges the idea that capitalist discourse was the dominant influence on the development of prose fiction. Instead, by shifting attention to the gift system as it was imagined and enacted in the formative years of the novel, the volume offers an innovative understanding of how the economy of obligation shaped writers' portrayals of class and gender identity, property, and community. Through theoretically-informed readings of Richardson's Clarissa and Sir Charles Grandison, Burney's Cecilia and The Wanderer, and Austen's Mansfield Park and Emma, the book foregrounds the issues of donation, reciprocity, indebtedness, and gratitude as it investigates the conflicts between the market and moral economies and analyzes women's position at the center of these conflicts. As this study reveals, the exchanges that eighteenth-century fiction prescribed for women confirm the continuing power and importance of gift transactions in the midst of an increasingly commercial culture. The volume will be essential reading for scholars of the eighteenth-century novel, economic literary criticism, women and gender studies, and book history.