当代中国社会中“礼物”及“随礼”行为的研究述评——基于社会学与人类学双重视角的考察

Review of Gifts and Gifts-giving Studies in Contemporary China:Based on Double Perspectives of Sociology and Anthropology

礼物及其相应的随礼行为作为一种普遍存在的社会行为,成为社会学与人类学研究关注的重点问题之一。本文对当代中国社会中的"礼物"及"随礼"行为研究展开述评。海外学者主要从关系、互惠与交换三种视角考察"礼物"及"随礼"行为的社会学与人类学意义;中国学者则主要从人情、网络、经济理性三种视角出发,丰富了"礼物"及"随礼"行为的理论构建。目前的研究主要集中在以村庄社区为个案而展开的微观实证性调查分析中,相对于丰富的实证研究,国内关于礼物的理论研究明显不足,基于此,应当对目前过于侧重农村研究的现状加以纠偏,在更大范围内展开城市与乡村的比较研究,将其放入当代中国城市化进程的背景下,考察正在形成中的原子化个人如何调整个人、社会与国家的关系,检讨中国城市化进程中的利弊得失。

As a universal social behavior, gifts and gifts-giving has become one of the popular studies in sociology and anthropology. This article focuses on the review of gifts and gifts-giving in contemporary China. Overseas scholars mainly pay close attention to its meaning in both sociology and anthropology from three perspectives on relationships, reciprocity and exchange. Chinese scholars mostly start researches by focusing on favor, networks and economic rationality. So many researchers are prone to carrying out case studies and empirical investigations in some villages. Comparing with abundant empirical researches, gift theory gets hardly development. Thus, we should transfer our visions from the countryside to the city to do some comparative studies. We can try to analyze gifts and gifts-giving in the context of China’s urbanization progress, and look into how the emerging atomized individual modulating the relationship among individual, society and state, to review the pros and cons in the progress of Chinese urbanization.