Open AccessTea, Gift-giving and Social Relationships’ Production of De’ang people in southwest China
Author(s) -
LI Quan-min
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
cultural and pedagogical inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1916-3460
DOI - 10.18733/c3zw2g
Subject(s) - reciprocity (cultural anthropology) , china , ethnic group , gift giving , identity (music) , sociology , social identity theory , production (economics) , geography , gender studies , ethnology , political science , anthropology , social group , social science , art , economics , aesthetics , archaeology , law , conflict of interest , macroeconomics
De’ang 德昂people are an ethnic minority officially-recognized in China who are tea planters and tea drinkers mainly living in the upland areas of southwest Yunnan on the border between China and Myanmar. This paper demonstrates that how De’ang use tea as a gift in gift giving with outsiders and insiders to produce their social relationships in their lives, and from the viewpoint of anthropology argues that tea giving among the De’ang not only can reflect the basic principle of reciprocity in gift exchange, but also can reveal their identity both inside and outside their own community through different social relationships.