University of Colorado Denver’s Chip Colwell – an anthropologist – explains this ancient part of being human
Giving gifts is a curious but central part of being human. While researching my new book, So Much Stuff, on how humanity has come to depend on tools and technology over the last 3 million years, I became fascinated by the purpose of giving things away. Why would people simply hand over something precious or valuable when they could use it themselves?
To me as an anthropologist, this is an especially powerful question because giving gifts likely has ancient roots. And gifts can be found in every known culture around the world.
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