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Can I read Between Polite Economy and the Gift: Nineteenth-Century British Travelers and Persian Excess on EtoBox?
Between Polite Economy and the Gift: Nineteenth-Century British Travelers and Persian Excess by Sarlati, Niloofar is a Social Sciences article available to read on EtoBox.
What is Between Polite Economy and the Gift: Nineteenth-Century British Travelers and Persian Excess about?
## Abstract Nineteenth-century travelogues by British travelers to Persia commonly include warnings against “excessive” Persian politeness, casting it as flattery or deceit. While this pejorative representation of Persian cordiality is a token of British Orientalism, it also highlights the incompatible measures for pleasantries in Persia and Britain. This essay traces the competing economies of social courtesy in these two contexts: a desire for utmost calculability in the British market entailed a new conception of politeness, one more moderate and commercial; by contrast, Persian politeness operated through gift-giving and “extravagant” greetings and complimenting. While the former hinges on a “modern” conception of commerce, the latter pivots around the bargain entailed in gift-giving. (Mis)recognition and (mis)translation of Persian “excess” as the hypocrisy of the ancien régime in the travelogues, however, signpost a teleological fabrication of the past which urges a global circulation of the British notion of polite character.
Who reads Between Polite Economy and the Gift: Nineteenth-Century British Travelers and Persian Excess?
It is typically read by researchers, students, and practitioners in Social Sciences.
- Author
- Sarlati, Niloofar
- Publisher
- Brill Academic Publishers (ISSN 2451-9189)
- Published
- 2020
- Language
- EN
- Field
- Social Sciences