Packaged Sentiments

The Social Meanings of Greeting Cards

Bibliographic Data

ID2391379
AuthorsAlexandra Jaffe (University of Southern Mississippi, corresponding author)
Year1999
Volume4
Issue2
Pages115-141
Publication date1999-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Material Culture (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1359-1835 • E-ISSN: 1460-3586
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/135918359900400201
OpenAlexW2006980847
LanguageEN
Citations received33
References cited17

This paper analyzes the social uses and meanings of greeting cards. It argues that cards occupy an intermediate and shifting place in between the opposing social categories of 'gift' vs. 'commodity'. The fact that the card is not a pure gift is the source of social criticisms of cards as impersonal. But the card's ambiguous status is also at the heart of its unique communicative potential. Analysis of specific cards and card categories shows how card senders can exploit various and multiple dimensions of the card's gift and commodity-like qualities to express socially authenticated identities and sentiments, as well as to send subtle and complex new messages about identities and relationships. Card use also shows how commodities can be 'appropriated' as gifts in the act of shopping and choosing; moreover, the consumption of cards is depicted as a dynamic site of 'virtual' interactions between sender and receiver. The specific case of greeting cards is used to illustrate the more general point that most things are not intrinsically 'gifts' or 'commodities'. Rather, things acquire these identities by virtue of social interactions and processes

Advertising · Business · Commodity · Communication source · Computer security · Consumption · Consumption (sociology · Exploit · Internet privacy · Sociology · Telecommunications · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Computer Science

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