Gifts have the function of bonding
communities together. ... If your entire
life is nothing but money transactions, ... then you don't have community
because you don't need anybody.
-- Charles Eisenstein, Amsterday Sept 2009 http://youtu.be/cS07gM74tww
-- Charles Eisenstein, Amsterday Sept 2009 http://youtu.be/cS07gM74tww
My dad just gave me a brand-new sawzall reciprocating
saw. Yesterday its maiden voyage helped
to repair the rainwater harvesting tanks at the community garden. In the spirit of gifting (in Maori they call
it hau), with this “second giving”
the sawzall entered into the gift economy.
From my dad’s very conservative, capitalist view, he
probably intended the sawzall to increase my personal possessions, my pile of
Stuff, my personal wealth. I should squirrel
it away in my garage, only bringing it out of its box when I need it for my own
house. My neighbor has his own sawzall;
that’s the capitalistic way. We – my
neighbor and I – should each be seeking to build and amass our own personal capital
base. And in this conventional paradigm the
inflow of a brand-new sawzall would be a boon to me, having increased my
capital.
Erotic commerce
When I first heard about a “gift economy” I thought it
simply meant giving things to each other.
Like you give trinkets for birthday presents and old clothes to Goodwill
Industries. How could this be an
“economy”? Little did I realize that a
gifting culture brings with it a whole new perspective on values, capital, who
is notable within the social order, connections and interdependency, and what
is important to people.
In his 1979 book The
Gift, Lewis Hyde speaks of gift exchange as 'erotic' commerce. He is referring to
eros, the principle of attraction, union,
involvement which binds together.
By contrast, a market economy is an example of logos:
reason and logic. Without gift exchange
we are without eros, that basic element
that attracts us to others and binds us together. Charles Eisenstein puts it even more baldly in
the quotation above: without gifting we are without community.
When my dad gave me the sawzall, that first transaction
could still have gone either way: into
my personal capital or into the gift culture.
The second transaction – my choice to hand the sawzall over for a
friend’s use – is the transaction which defines it as a gift. The hau
has been multiplied. Rather than holding
it close, I have sought to multiply its spirit, and distribute that spirit,
spreading it around my community. My sawzall-borrowing friend multiplied it further, because
he used the tool to make repairs in a garden that grows food for the needy and
is open to the general public. The hau extended still further.
Baby, don’t stop
Dictum: One man’s gift must not become
another man’s capital.
Corollary: The increase that comes of gift exchange must
remain a gift and not be kept as if it were the return on private capital.
-- from Lewis Hyde
Hyde draws a distinction between the object itself and the
multiplication of the gift. While the
physical sawzall did eventually return to my garage for temporary storage, the benefit from its use continued to travel
and flow
further within the community. My friend
feels gratitude for use of the tool; feelings of goodwill flow from others who heard
about the transaction; people now know a sawzall is available within the
neighborhood; the community garden tanks are now operational; and public
education continues.
Contrast that with the capitalist concept, so aptly named
“retained earnings.” The gift would
increase my receipts or “net income” for the year, which accordingly increases
my personal capital and net worth. I’ve
swallowed it up as Mine. The spirit of the transaction comes to an abrupt stop.
Giving it Away
In cultures where gifting is a common practice, a man’s net
worth is determined by how much he gives away.
Rather than how much he has retained, his status within the community is
defined by his control of distribution
– how widely and generously he has shared what he had.
It brings to mind a statistic from a Kim Klein book about
conventional fundraising. Klein says the
majority of gifts to nonprofits come from households with incomes of less than
$90,000 -- the middle-class, working-class, and poor. Her statistic is an indicator of a different
paradigm about assets and property, and Hyde’s examples help to explain it.
Hyde tells a story from a kinship network in an urban ghetto
neighborhood: A couple received some
inheritance money. Within six weeks the
money was distributed to a variety of purposes around the kinship network. From a capitalist’s viewpoint (logos), the money was “an influx of
capital,” that could have been put toward buying a house or capital investment;
instead, the couple “wasted” it and it was “gone.”
The couple’s behavior came from a different paradigm: one of eros, union, involvement. They bought winter coats for nieces and
nephews who needed them; they transported family members to the sickbed of one
relative; they paid the funeral expenses for another. From a gifting viewpoint, the inheritance
windfall helped to shore up a vast network of people, and brought the couple much
deeper integration into their community.
Klein’s statistic is a sign that “the 99%” still understands
the gift paradigm. Despite sparkly TV
commercials to the contrary, capitalism hasn’t won us over completely. Some threads of gift culture understanding do
still linger throughout our collective culture.
Your marching orders are to find and cultivate these fine threads, and
bring them to the forefront.
