Alienable gifts: Uses and meanings of gold in Turkey

Abstract

ABSTRACT Gold coins and bracelets, standardized and generic items readily available in every jewelry shop, feature predominantly in gift exchange in Turkey. In this study, we investigate why these objects are valued, what they mean to people, and how they are used. Through in‐depth interviews and ethnographic observations, we identify three occasions that gifts of gold take a prominent role. First, we discuss giving gold coins and bracelets in ritualized occasions and locate this traditional practice within a system of economically embedded solidarity. Second, we explain self‐gifting of gold items and discuss how such gift giving enables consumers to exercise self‐control. Finally, we look at how gold gifts serve as means for women to build socioeconomic power and discuss traditional and modern versions of gold accumulation. Overall, we observe that, in the context of Turkish consumer culture, gifting of gold contains a bundle of meanings that cannot be polarized into utilitarian or symbolic. Gold gifts serve multiple purposes simultaneously, and economic motives do not necessarily contradict with and jeopardize the social nature of gift‐giving behavior. Gold coins and bracelets stand as ambiguous objects that maintain their commodity status and financial value and at the same time gain relational and symbolic value. The appeal of gold gifts lies in their ability to navigate between the economic and the social, without subordinating one to the other. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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