Gifting for the Gift of it

I am the type of person that does not go places empty-handed, whether it is to a birthday party, where clearly gifts are not supposed to be brought or to some one's new apartment for the first time. I usually bake cookies or find some nick-knack that is inexpensive and silly, however anything really is considered a gift. When I do this, I do not expect a gift in return, just a big huge, which in its self is a gift to me. When reading "The Gift" parts of the reading seemed to me that the gifts were not actually gifts, but just an understanding, which I suppose could mean the same thing as bringing a birthday present to a birthday party, however most of the "gifts" given from tribe to tribe were planned out. I guess when I think of the word now, as a modern word, I think of something, anything, materialistic or not materialistic, given to another person, without any previous indication.

Getting to the point where no gift is free, which I have never thought of until now. I think that every one's opinion will be slightly different on this because what a gift is to me, could not be a gift to someone else. Reciprocating makes sense to me, in that if you are given a present for a certain occasion or situation by a certain person, then if that situation comes up in the giver's life, you give back.