What is a gift economy? - Alex Gendler

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What if, this holiday season, instead of saying "thank you" to your aunt for her gift of a knitted sweater, the polite response expected from you was to show up at her house in a week with a better gift? Or to vote for her in the town election? Or let her adopt your firstborn child? Alex Gendler explains how all of these things might not sound so strange if you were involved in a gift economy.

Lesson by Alex Gendler, animation by Avi Ofer.

This holiday season,

people around the world will give
and receive presents.

You might even get
a knitted sweater from an aunt.

But what if instead of saying "thanks"
before consigning it to the closet,

the polite response expected from you

was to show up to her house
in a week with a better gift?

Or to vote for her in the town election?

Or let her adopt your firstborn child?

All of these things might not
sound so strange

if you are involved in a gift economy.

This phrase might seem contradictory.

After all, isn't a gift given for free?

But in a gift economy,
gifts given without explicit conditions

are used to foster a system
of social ties and obligations.

While the market economies we know
are formed by relationships

between the things being traded,

a gift economy consists
of the relationships

between the people doing the trading.

Gift economies have existed
throughout human history.

The first studies of the concept

came from anthropologists
Bronislaw Malinowski and Marcel Mauss

who describe the natives
of the Trobriand islands

making dangerous canoe journeys
across miles of ocean

to exchange shell necklaces
and arm bands.

The items traded through this process,
known as the kula ring,

have no practical use,

but derive importance
from their original owners

and carry an obligation
to continue the exchange.

Other gift economies
may involve useful items,

such as the potlatch feast
of the Pacific Northwest,

where chiefs compete for prestige
by giving away livestock and blankets.

We might say that instead
of accumulating material wealth,

participants in a gift economy
use it to accumulate social wealth.

Though some instances of gift economies
may resemble barter,

the difference is that the original gift
is given without any preconditions

or haggling.

Instead, the social norm of reciprocity

obligates recipients to voluntarily
return the favor.

But the rules for how and when to do so
vary between cultures,

and the return on a gift
can take many forms.

A powerful chief giving
livestock to a poor man

may not expect goods in return,

but gains social prestige
at the debtor's expense.

And among the Toraja people of Indonesia,

the status gained from gift ceremonies
even determines land ownership.

The key is to keep the gift cycle going,

with someone always
indebted to someone else.

Repaying a gift immediately,

or with something of exactly equal value,

may be read as ending
the social relationship.

So, are gift economies exclusive
to small-scale societies

outside the industrialized world?

Not quite.

For one thing, even in these cultures,

gift economies function alongside
a market system for other exchanges.

And when we think about it,

parts of our own societies
work in similar ways.

Communal spaces, such as Burning Man,

operate as a mix of barter
and a gift economy,

where selling things
for money is strictly taboo.

In art and technology,

gift economies are emerging
as an alternative to intellectual property

where artists,

musicians,

and open-source developers

distribute their creative works,
not for financial profit,

but to raise their social profile
or establish their community role.

And even potluck dinners
and holiday gift traditions

involve some degree
of reciprocity and social norms.

We might wonder if a gift is truly a gift

if it comes with obligations
or involves some social pay off.

But this is missing the point.

Our idea of a free gift
without social obligations

prevails only if we already think
of everything in market terms.

And in a commericalized world,

the idea of strengthening bonds
through giving and reciprocity

may not be such a bad thing,
wherever you may live.