A Review of Gift Research from the Perspective of Anthropology

From the beginning of the study of potlatch and “Kula”, because of the close relationship between gifts and social economy, interpersonal relationships, identification, social structure, religious beliefs, social change and so on, gift-related research have entered the anthropological research field. This paper reviews the related achievements of gift research from the aspects of gift itself and its anthropological attributes, finding that gift-related research shows the characteristics such as diverse research fields, broad research scope, equal emphasis on theory and materials, diverse research methods, and emphasis on summary and reflection. In the future, we should enhance the breadth and depth of gift research, andpromotes the sinicization of gift research.