Gift-exchange as a means of 'Handling Diversity': Japanese-European interactions in the Seventeenth Century
De Winter, W. (2013). Gift-exchange as a means of 'Handling Diversity': Japanese-European interactions in the Seventeenth Century. Mediev. Hist. J. 16(2): 565-583. https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0971945813515023
In: The Medieval History Journal. Sage: Thousand Oaks. ISSN 0971-9458; e-ISSN 0973-0753
Historical intercultural interactions between Europeans and Japanese during the seventeenth century were characterised by a diversity of perceptions and attitudes within a dynamic yet stable continuum of relationships, in which people reached a certain degree of understanding in a daily context. This relational stability was fundamentally created through evolving cycles of gift-behaviour, which occurred on distinct social levels. Surpassing mere tribute, this proved to be a constitutive element of daily social life. Research based on early seventeenth century European travellers’ accounts, letters and journals, compared with a famous case from the end of that century, emphasises that this behaviour changed in some ways and persisted in others. Originally developing in a considerably spontaneous and dynamic manner, this tendency became more institutionalised and ritualised in later times, when a fixed protocol for dealing with diversity was established. This phenomenon can be analysed through anthropological theory, and should be compared to different historical contexts in a diachronic sense, in order to fully understand both the theoretical implications and particularities of this context. This includes a methodologically critical perspective as well as a reflection on how historians handle diversity.
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