Page 107 - The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love That Lasts

Love Language #3

RECEIVING GIFTS

I was in Chicago when I studied anthropology. By means
of detailed ethnographies, I visited fascinating peoples all
over the world. I went to Central America and studied the
advanced cultures of the Mayans and the Aztecs. I crossed
the Pacific and studied the tribal peoples of Melanesia and
Polynesia. I studied the Eskimos of the northern tundra and
the aboriginal Ainus of Japan. I examined the cultural
patterns surrounding love and marriage and found that in
every culture I studied, gift giving was a part of the love-
marriage process.
Anthropologists are enamored by cultural patterns that
tend to pervade cultures, and so was I. Could it be that gift
giving is a fundamental expression of love that transcends
cultural barriers? Is the attitude of love always
accompanied by the concept of giving? Those are
academic and somewhat philosophical questions, but if the
answer is yes, it has profound practical implications for
North American couples.
I took an anthropology field trip to the island of