Temporality or periodicity affects the situation that precipitates the giving of gifts. While gift exchange may be synchronized with the cultural calendar, it also occurs ad hoc. Gift-giving occasions can be formal structural events marked by ceremony and ritual, as in the case of commemorative dates, social decorum(where token giving and hos pitality figure prominently), and rites of passage. Timing of this sort is also an important part of the exchange ritual itself, as the giving of gifts is frequently embedded in ceremonial behavior. Gift exchange may be ongoing or, as in cases such as the bequest, nonrecurring. Reciprocation may occur with inappropriate haste, or may be inappropriately deferred. On the other hand, gift-giving occasions may also be emergent. transient events. Such as reconciliation attempts following marital disputes. The obverse of conflict resolution is alliance formation. The dynamics o initiatory giving might be instructively compared with those of reciprocation. Shurmer(1971) suggests that the first gift usually involves little social or material risk, and that it is usually disguised as a reciprocation of some ostensibly intangible previous gift(e.g., hospitality as a counterflow(reciprocation) to neighborliness). She notes that the first gift is generally easier to give if the recipient is in a position obviating immediate reciprocation(e.g.,ill or pregnant).