Title: Not much of a read
Product review: I had a number of problems with this book. The good parts were that it contained much information on the regulation of gifts in a small community over a certain period of time. This is the kind of contextualization that really should be apllied to any anthropological work. Unfortunately, an eye towards the readers is something I also believe should be included. Specifically, I don't think there should be much line between literature and science in a field that cannot possibly hope to perform like a physical science. Trying to gauge human interaction on a scale does not work in my opinion. Since that's what this book attempts to do, it bugs me. As a piece of anthropology concerning gift giving in rural China, it is actually quite good. But only if that's your bag.
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