What is a gift economy  - Alex Gendler - video Dailymotion

TED-Ed

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.

Transcript

00:00This holiday season, people around the world will give and receive presents.

00:11You might even get a knitted sweater from an aunt.

00:14But what if instead of saying thanks before consigning it to the closet,

00:17the polite response expected from you was to show up at her house in a week with a better gift?

00:22Or to vote for her in the town election?

00:25Or let her adopt your firstborn child?

00:28All of these things might not sound so strange if you are involved in a gift economy.

00:34This phrase might seem contradictory.

00:36After all, isn't a gift given for free?

00:39But in a gift economy, gifts given without explicit conditions

00:43are used to foster a system of social ties and obligations.

00:47While the market economies we know are formed by relationships between the things being traded,

00:52a gift economy consists of the relationships between the people doing the trading.

00:57Gift economies have existed throughout human history.

01:01The first studies of the concept came from anthropologist Branislav Malinowski and Marcel Moss,

01:07who described the natives of the Trobriand Islands making dangerous canoe journeys across miles of ocean

01:12to exchange shell necklaces and armbands.

01:15The items traded through this process, known as the Kula Ring,

01:19have no practical use,

01:21but derive importance from their original owners

01:23and carry an obligation to continue the exchange.

01:26Other gift economies may involve useful items,

01:29such as the potlash feasts of the Pacific Northwest,

01:32where chiefs compete for prestige by giving away livestock and blankets.

01:36We might say that instead of accumulating material wealth,

01:40participants in a gift economy use it to accumulate social wealth.

01:45Though some instances of gift economies may resemble barter,

01:49the difference is that the original gift is given without any preconditions or haggling.

01:54Instead, the social norm of reciprocity obligates recipients to voluntarily return the favor.

02:00But the rules for how and when to do so vary between cultures,

02:04and the return on a gift can take many forms.

02:08A powerful chief giving livestock to a poor man may not expect goods in return,

02:13but gains social prestige at the debtor's expense.

02:17And among the Toraja people of Indonesia,

02:20the status gained from gift ceremonies even determines land ownership.

02:24The key is to keep the gift cycle going,

02:27with someone always indebted to someone else,

02:29repaying a gift immediately or with something of exactly equal value

02:33may be read as ending the social relationship.

02:36So, are gift economies exclusive to small-scale societies outside the industrialized world?

02:42Not quite.

02:44For one thing, even in these cultures,

02:46gift economies function alongside a market system for other exchanges.

02:50And when we think about it,

02:52parts of our own societies work in similar ways.

02:55Communal spaces, such as Burning Man,

02:57operate as a mix of barter and a gift economy,

03:00where selling things for money is strictly taboo.

03:03In art and technology,

03:05gift economies are emerging as an alternative to intellectual property,

03:09where artists, musicians, and open source developers

03:12distribute their creative works not for financial profit,

03:15but to raise their social profile or establish their community role.

03:19And even potluck dinners and holiday gift traditions involve some degree of reciprocity in social norms.

03:26We might wonder if a gift is truly a gift if it comes with obligations or involves some social payoff.

03:32But this is missing the point.

03:34Our idea of a free gift without social obligations prevails only if we already think of everything in market terms.

03:41And in a commercialized world,

03:43the idea of strengthening bonds through giving and reciprocity may not be such a bad thing,

03:49wherever you may live.

04:04Other than that,

04:06with bondage and Hamilton,

04:07I am so right now DEM09 and I am so right.

04:08So I will try to get a bridge behind my work.

04:09And if I can increase that absolutely.

04:10I am so right,

04:11I can't agree with that.

04:12I can't agree with this.

04:13I can't agree with that as a good guy is coming.

04:14I can't agree with that,

04:15I can't agree with that.

04:16And I can agree with that I am so right.

04:18But now you are working with that.

What is a gift economy - Alex Gendler

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