SPA361 Podcast 1

Kenny recently learned about the complexity of gift-giving in his anthropology class. He discovered that giving a gift can create an obligation for the recipient to give a gift in return. This can make receiving gifts awkward. Kenny also mentioned that Christmas, in particular, can feel obligated and forced when it comes to gift-giving. Overall, he isn't a big fan of Christmas because of this sense of obligation. Hi, my name is Jocelyn. For this brief interview, I have with me here my boyfriend, Kenny. He will talk to us about something he recently learned about that caught his attention. And something that he just really wanted to tell the world about. Hello, Kev. My name is Kenny. How are you guys doing? Okay. So, Kenny, what is something that you have learned about recently that you really wanted to share with everybody else today? I know a lot about it. Puede ser lo que sea. Me falta, pero, me quise con la ciencia. Yeah, go ahead. I can try. So, hoy estuvimos en la clase, and we were learning. I was in anthropology class, specifically. Y estuvimos aprendiendo about gift-giving and things like that. So, through an anthropologist aspect, we started learning about how, you know, one thing that caught my attention was how gifts can basically be a lot more complex than we tend to think of them. When it comes to gifts, oftentimes when you give them, it's also giving an obligation to the person. So, yeah, when you give a gift to someone, it kind of makes the other person feel obligated to, you know, repay you in a sense and give you a gift back in return. That's why, you know, when you receive a gift, it can be kind of awkward sometimes. Things like that, you know. Let's say your birthday rolls around. Your dad can give you, like, let's say, you know, $20 for your birthday. However, the same isn't, it doesn't work the same way around, you know. You can't really give your dad, like, $20 for his birthday just because he'll be like, you know, he'll be like, what the hell? I mean, I don't know. I give my dad $20, but okay. That's, like, just more of a common thing or, you know, a common concept about it. Just one question. So, what are your thoughts on Christmas? Not a big fan of Christmas. Believe it or not. Because of this? Not even because of this. It's just because of how the way Christmas works around where we are in America. I just think it really, here at Christmas or Christmas time, really gives you that sense of obligation. You know, you find out someone's trying to give you a gift and then you're just like, you feel obligated to get them something. And sometimes, you know, sometimes you end up getting something like, spend $30 on something that you know they'll never use. But it's like, you just feel that sense of obligation to do it. So, it kind of forces your hand. Ben, thank you for telling us about what you have learned in your anthropology class. And, yeah, anything else you want to say? ¿Dónde está la biblioteca? That's the only question for the class. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.