The Culture of Giving in Myanmar: Buddhist Offerings, Reciprocity and Interdependence

Description

How can people living in one of the poorest countries in the world be among the most charitable? In this book, Hiroko Kawanami examines the culture of giving in Myanmar, and explores the pivotal role that Buddhist monastic members occupy in creating a platform for civil society. Despite having at one time been listed as one of the poorest countries in the world in GNP terms, Myanmar has topped a global generosity list for the past four years with more than 90 percent of the population engaged in 'giving' activities. This book explores the close relationship that Buddhists share with the monastic community in Myanmar, extending observations of this relationship into an understanding of wider Buddhist cultures. It then examines how deeply the reciprocal transactions of giving and receiving in society - or interdependent living - are implicated in the Buddhist faith. The Culture of Giving in Myanmar fills a gap in research on Buddhist offerings in Myanmar, and is an important contribution to the growing field of Myanmar studies and anthropology of Buddhism.

Hiroko Kawanami is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion, Lancaster University, UK. She has extensive experience of working with the Buddhist community in Myanmar and is author of Buddhism and the Political Process (2016) and co-editor of Religions in the Modern World, 3rd edition (2016).

The Culture of Giving in Myanmar: Buddhist Offerings, Reciprocity and Interdependence is indisputably a key contemporary work on the sensitivities of the social custom of gift-giving and its implications in social and religious contexts ... The book is irrefutably a robust value addition in the broader anthropological and sociological discourse on gift transactions and contributes effectively to the ongoing research in anthropology of Buddhism and Southeast Asian studies. * Reading Religion * [A] culturally detailed and ethnographically informed book ... Kawanami's book opens a fruitful avenue for further analysis of the cultures of giving and the political ramifications of othering in Myanmar and beyond. * Journal of Buddhist Ethics *