Link to the Show / Show Notes
This
edition of Canadian Voices features cultural historian Margaret
Visser, speaking on themes from her 2008 book, "The Gift of
Thanks: The Roots, Persistence, and Paradoxical Meanings of a Social
Ritual". The talk was originally broadcast on TV Ontario's Big
Ideas programme in December, 2008.
In
the Gift of Thanks, Margaret Visser takes her cues from linguistics,
the classics, and anthropology, to
investigate the way gratitude manifests itself across cultures, from
tipping waiters in restaurants, to standing in silence on
Remembrance Day. Her inquiry into all aspects of gratefulness ranges
from the unusual determination with which parents teach their
children to thank, to the difference between speaking the words and
feeling them, to the way different cultures handle the complex
matter of giving, receiving, and returning favours and presents. In
this talk, gratitude is revealed as a key to understanding many
aspects of everyday behaviour.
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