[quote=davelj]while receiving nothing of equal value in return[/quote]

Are you kidding? You are buying an option! Anthropology is a great field, but you need to talk to an economist about things of value (they are fellow social scientists, after all).

What really bothers me is that women still expect to receive diamonds, even though we know that the diamond trade generates a whole deal of violence in Africa. Teenaged boys (sometimes women and girls too) are mutilated or killed, entire populations are displaced, weak governments finally collapse and chaos ensues, etc., etc.

Isn’t it time girls say, “hey, to hell with tradition, I don’t want a gift that causes so much blooshed”?