Educare all'atto creativo del dono tra gratuità e legame

Abstract

The practice of gifting, observed by means of an interpretative model capable of integrating the utilitarian (individual) sphere of the act of giving with the conception of the gift as a cultural and anthropological expression aimed at building networks of relationships (community), as well as allowing to see concrete manifestations in this sense in contemporary Western society (volunteering is an example), raises questions about the very nature of the relationship that is created between the donor and the recipient of this act, reporting the question on the educational and pedagogical since one wonders what the theoretical-empirical reference models can nurture and support the gift paradigm. The reference to Japanese culture with the concept of mushotoku, in line with the Being of E. Fromm, but above all the ethno-anthropological studies of Marcel Mauss, allow us to hypothesize a creativity of the gift, from a pedagogical point of view, where the free act of giving and establishing a relationship with the other represent self-realization and creative gestures (Maslow), expression of a more general attitude of openness towards the Other and the surrounding environment. The donated and received object therefore seems to possess, in addition to a material value, a subtle meaning capable of sustaining the relationship between donor and recipient in a circular and recursive process, whose goal is not the equilibrium (extinction of the debt), but the building of a link of a moral nature.