My Theory of Human Evolution (amazon.com edition)
For a birthday present, I bought Planet Earth, a beautiful and eloquent 5-DVD documentary, from amazon.com. I had it gift-wrapped. It looked like this:
I was amused. This is not how gifts should look. It looked machine-wrapped; gifts should look hand-wrapped. They should look like lots of care went into the wrapping. I thought everyone knew this, but the gift-wrap designers at amazon.com appear to be unclear on the concept. At least use intricate wrapping paper, would have been my advice. Here is my gift among the other gifts:
Why do we want gifts to be intricately wrapped? It is part of a whole gift-giving ethos. Sure, gifts must be (slightly) difficult otherwise they are meaningless. But that’s not the whole story. The signaling explanation of gifts (gifts show we care) is not the whole explanation because there are many ways to be difficult, only some of which advance material science. Do we like gifts to be old — to be aged, to have sat in our closet for 5 years? That would be difficult, but it wouldn’t advance material science. Do we like gifts to be very new (”fresh”) — made that morning? That too would be difficult but wouldn’t advance material science. Do we like gifts to be made by very old or very young people? That too would be difficult but wouldn’t advance material science. Whereas the actual desire for intricacy does advance material science. To produce more intricate designs, you need better control of your materials. The most intricate objects are made by specialists — artists and artisans. Our desire for intricacy supports them (we can buy a nicer gift than we can make) and pushes them to improve their skills.
When Bill McKibben, an excellent writer, calls for homemade Christmas presents, I believe he is missing this point. In Berkeley, at least, local artisans, such as ceramicists, must make most of their money in Christmas season. (I should ask some of them about this.)
December 8th, 2007 at 6:26 am
The Japanese presented gifts wrapped in such costly wrappers of woven and embroidered cloth, sometimes with real gold thread decoration, that the recipient was expected to return the wrapper to the giver.