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A gift economy is an economic system in which goods and services are given without any explicit agreement for immediate or future quid pro quo. Typically, a gift economy occurs in a culture or subculture that emphasizes social or intangible rewards for generosity: karma, honor, loyalty or other forms of gratitude. In some cases, simultaneous or recurring giving serves to circulate and redistribute valuables within a community. This can be considered a form of reciprocal altruism. Sometimes there is an implicit expectation of the return of comparable goods or services, political support, or the gift being later passed on to a third party. However, in what is considered to be in the true spirit of gift economics, many times giving is done without any expectation of reciprocity. Image File history File links Portal. ... An economic system is a particular set of social institutions which deals with the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services in a particular society. ... Quid pro quo (Latin for something for something [1]) indicates a more-or-less equal exchange or substitution of goods or services. ... For other uses, see Culture (disambiguation). ... In sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a set of people with a set of behaviors and beliefs, culture, which could be distinct or hidden, that differentiate them from the larger culture to which they belong. ... For other uses, see Karma (disambiguation). ... “Thanks” redirects here. ... In evolutionary biology, reciprocal altruism is a form of altruism in which one organism provides a benefit to another in the expectation of future reciprocation. ...

The concept of a gift economy stands in contrast to a planned economy or a market or barter economy. In a planned economy, goods and services are distributed by explicit command and control rather than informal custom; in barter or market economies, an explicit quid pro quo — an exchange of money or some other commodity — is established before the transaction takes place. In practice, most human societies blend elements of all of these, in varying degrees. This article refers to an economy controlled by the state. ... A market economy (also called a free market economy or a free enterprise economy) is an economic system in which the production and distribution of goods and services take place through the mechanism of free markets (though completley useless to some dumbasses) guided by a free price system. ... Barter is a simple form of trade where goods or services are exchanged for a certain amount of other goods or services, i. ... For other uses, see Money (disambiguation). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Examples and Benefits

Some examples would be:

• Sharing of food in a hunter-gatherer society, where sharing is a safeguard against failure of any individual's daily foraging.
• The Pacific Northwest Native American potlatch ritual, where leaders give away large amounts of goods to their followers, strengthening group relations. By sacrificing accumulated wealth, a leader gained a position of honor.
• Southeast Asia Theravada Buddhist Feasts of Merit, so similar to above that the About paragraph could apply; except that such feasts involve many sponsors of all types, and continue to this day mainly before and after Rainy Seasons rather than chiefly in winter.^[1]
• Offerings to a deity, spirit, intercessionary saint or similar entities.
• A "favor network" within a company.
• A family, in which each generation pays for the education of the next: this is an example where the gift creates an implicit obligation to give a gift to a third party, rather than to the giver.
• Religious tithing.
• Charitable giving or philanthropy.
• Open source development and other forms of commons-based peer production.

A gift economy is sometimes referred to as a "sharing economy," although many economists reserve the term "sharing" for the use of a single resource by more than one consumer, such as a common, a public library, or a shared car. It is also sometimes referred to as a "gift culture." For other uses, see Share. ... In anthropology, the hunter-gatherer way of life is that led by certain societies of the Neolithic Era based on the exploitation of wild plants and animals. ... The Pacific Northwest from space The Pacific Northwest, abbreviated PNW, or PacNW is a region in the northwest of North America. ... Native Americans redirects here. ... For other uses, see Potlatch (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Potlatch (disambiguation). ... The wet season is a term commonly used when describing the weather in the tropics. ... Look up deity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The English word spirit comes from the Latin spiritus (breath). // The English word spirit comes from the Latin spiritus, meaning breath (compare spiritus asper), but also soul, courage, vigor, ultimately from a PIE root *(s)peis- (to blow). In the Vulgate, the Latin word translates Greek (πνευμα), pneuma (Hebrew (רוח) ruah), as... Intercession of the saints is a Christian doctrine common to the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. ... A tithe (from Old English teogoþa tenth) is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a (usually) voluntary contribution or as a tax or levy, usually to support a Jewish or Christian religious organization. ... Allegorical personification of Charity as a mother with three infants by Anthony van Dyck Charity, meaning selfless giving, is one conventional English translation of the Greek term agapē. // Etymology In the 1400, charity meant the state of love or simple affection which one was in or out of regarding one... Philanthropy is the act of donating money, goods, time, or effort to support a charitable cause, usually over an extended period of time and in regard to a defined objective. ... Open source refers to projects that are open to the public and which draw on other projects that are freely available to the general public. ... Commons-based peer production is a term coined by Yales Law professor Yochai Benkler to describe a new model of economic production in which the creative energy of large numbers of people is coordinated (usually with the aid of the internet) into large, meaningful projects, mostly without traditional hierarchical... Face-to-face trading interactions on the New York Stock Exchange trading floor. ... For other uses, see Share. ... Commons redirects here. ... Librarians and patrons in a typical larger urban public library. ... Car sharing is a system where a fleet of cars (or other vehicles) is owned by a company or cooperative, which are available for use by members of the car share. ...

One of the possible benefits of a gift economy (which it has in common with some planned economies) is that it can provide for the needs of some who have no current means with which to reciprocate. For example, if some in a society are so poor as to have nothing material to barter and no goods or money to bring to market, they can still receive charity if sufficient resources exist. Similarly, in the vast majority of societies, parents support their children at least in early childhood (and, in some societies, into adolescence and adulthood) without any explicit negotiation of what is expected in exchange.

Some have suggested that variations on a gift economy may be the key to breaking the cycle of poverty. This position, and the desire to refashion of all of society into a gift economy, are particularly characteristic of anarcho-primitivism and anarcho-communism. Anarcho-communists advocate a pure gift economy as an ideal, with neither money, nor markets, nor central planning. This view traces back at least to Peter Kropotkin, who saw in the hunter-gatherer tribes he had visited the paradigm of "mutual aid." In economics and sociology, the cycle of poverty is the theory that poverty-stricken individuals tend to remain poor throughout their lives. ... Theory Issues Culture By region Lists Anarchism Portal Politics Portal ·        Anarcho-primitivism is an anarchist critique of the origins and progress of civilization. ... Anarcho-Communism, or Libertarian Communism, is a political ideology related to Libertarian socialism. ... Prince Peter (Pyotr) Alexeyevich Kropotkin (Russian: ) (December 9, 1842–February 8, 1921) was one of Russias foremost anarchists and one of the first advocates of anarchist communism: the model of society he advocated for most of his life was that of a communalist society free from central government. ... The term mutual aid has multiple meanings: Mutual aid, a tenet of anarchist thought Mutual aid, an agreement between emergency responders Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, a book by anarchist Peter Kropotkin Mutual aid, in social work with groups Category: ...

Characteristics

As remarked above, in a typical gift economy, gift recipients are expected to give something in return, such as political support, military services and general loyalty, or even return gifts and favors. This was common in warrior societies where kings and chieftains gave freely to their followers and could expect their loyal service in return. Such systems have social sanctions built in to punish freeloaders or miserly chiefs. A default punishment would be to halt gifts or services from one party to the alleged party in wrong. Typical sanctions might also include a bad reputation, formal eviction from the lord's hall, a challenge to a duel, or public ridicule. A stingy lord would find it difficult to attract followers. For other uses, see Monarch (disambiguation). ... The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view. ...

Lewis Hyde expresses the spirit of a gift economy (and its contrast to a market economy) as follows: Lewis Hyde is a scholar and writer whose scholarly work focuses on the nature of imagination, creativity, and property. ...

The opposite of "Indian giver" would be something like "white man keeper"… [W]hatever we have been given is supposed to be given away not kept. Or, if it is kept, something of similar value should move in its stead… [T]he gift may be given back to its original donor, but this is not essential… The only essential is this: the gift must always move.^[2] Indian giver is an American English expression used for any individual who gives something and then either takes it back or wants to take it back[1]. The expression Indian giver is based on the belief that Native Americans would lend items to the settlers, in other words, let them...

He further remarks that a traditional gift economy is based on "the obligation to give, the obligation to accept, and the obligation to reciprocate," and that it is "at once economic, juridical, moral, aesthetic, religious, and mythological."^[3] An obligation can be legal or moral. ...

Hyde argues, somewhat against Mauss, that there is a difference between a "true" gift given out of gratitude and a "false" gift given only out of obligation. In Hyde's view, the "true" gift binds us in a way beyond any commodity transaction, but "we cannot really become bound to those who give us false gifts."^[4] Referring to Alcoholics Anonymous — which functions internally largely as a gift economy — Hyde passes on a piece of AA jargon: a "Two-Stepper" is a person who tries to go directly from stopping drinking alcohol to the twelfth step of giving back to others. That person has received a gift (sobriety) for which he or she feels an obligation; however, instead of doing the necessary labor (the next ten steps) to be in a position to fulfill the obligation, he or she attempts to give that which he or she does not yet possess.^[5] “Thanks” redirects here. ... AA meeting sign // Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is an informal meeting society for recovering alcoholics whose primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics achieve sobriety. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

While it is easy to romanticize a gift economy, humans do not always wish to be enmeshed in a web of obligation. Marcel Mauss wrote, "The gift not yet repaid debases the man who accepts it,"^[6] a lesson certainly not lost on the young person seeking independence who decides not to accept more money or gifts from his or her parents.^[7] And as Hyde writes, "There are times when we want to be aliens and strangers."^[8] We like to be able to go to the corner store, buy a can of soup, and not have to let the store clerk into our affairs or vice versa. We like to travel on an airplane without worrying about whether we would personally get along with the pilot. A gift creates a "feeling bond." Commodity exchange does not.^[9] Marcel Mauss (May 10, 1872 – February 10, 1950) was a French sociologist best known for his role in elaborating on and securing the legacy of his uncle Émile Durkheim and the Année Sociologique. ...

The lack of such a "feeling bond" can, of course, be taken to hideous extremes, as when the Ford Motor Company did a cost-benefit analysis and decided not to fix a potentially fatal flaw in the Ford Pinto gas tank.^[10] But the gift economy can also take hideous turns, as when a gift is given mainly to create an obligation, a matter often treated in myths of the hazards of accepting a gift in hell or from the fairies.^[11] The gift economy can also be turned to the service of command economy, as when Che Guevara insisted, "Labor should not be sold like merchandise but offered as a gift to the community."^[12] “Ford” redirects here. ... Cost-benefit analysis is an important technique for project appraisal: the process of weighing the total expected costs against the total expected benefits of one or more actions in order to choose the best or most profitable option. ... The Ford Pinto was an American subcompact car manufactured by the Ford Motor Company, first introduced in 1971, and built through the 1980 model year. ... For other uses, see Mythology (disambiguation). ... This article is about the theological or philosophical afterlife. ... by Sophie Anderson For other uses, see Fairy (disambiguation). ... Ernesto Guevara de la Serna (June 14,[1] 1928 – October 9, 1967), commonly known as Che Guevara, El Che or just Che was an Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary, medical doctor , political figure, and leader of Cuban and internationalist guerrillas. ...

Carol Stack's All Our Kin describes both the positive and negative sides of a network of obligation and gratitude effectively constituting a gift economy. Her narrative of The Flats, a poor Chicago neighborhood, tells in passing the story of two sisters who each came into a small inheritance. One sister hoarded the inheritance and prospered materially for some time, but was alienated from the community. Her marriage ultimately broke up, and she integrated herself back into the community largely by giving gifts. The other sister fulfilled the community's expectations, but within six weeks had nothing material to show for the inheritance but a coat and a pair of shoes.^[13] Nickname: Motto: Urbs in Horto (Latin: City in a Garden), I Will Location in the Chicago metro area and Illinois Coordinates: , Country State Counties Cook, DuPage Settled 1770s Incorporated March 4, 1837 Government  - Mayor Richard M. Daley (D) Area  - City 234. ...

Another problem of gift economies is the source of the gifts. In many historical gift economies, the giver derived the goods from raiding and plundering. The need to procure gifts can make a gift society very warlike and create little opportunity for less bellicose rulers. Of course, capitalist and other economies have also been built on raiding, plundering, war, and bellicose, highly insulated power structures; thus these symptoms are likely an effect of human greed rather than a particular organizational concept.

Traditional gift economies

Marshall Sahlins writes that Stone Age gift economies were, by their nature as gift economies, economies of abundance, not scarcity, despite their typical status of objective poverty. ^[14] Stone Age fishing hook. ...

Hyde locates the origin of gift economies in the sharing of food, citing for example the Trobriand Islander protocol of referring to a gift in the Kula exchange as "some food we could not eat," when it is not food at all, but an armband or shell necklace made for the explicit purpose of passing as a gift.^[15] The potlatch also originated as a "big feed."^[16] He argues that this led to a notion in many societies of the gift as something that must "perish." The Trobriand Islands are a 170 mi² archipelago of coral atolls off the eastern coast of New Guinea. ... Kula can refer to: Kula, Hawaii, a district of East Maui in Hawaii Kula, Bulgaria, a town in Vidin Province Kula (Vojvodina), a town and municipality in Vojvodina (Serbia) Kula, Turkey, a town in Western Anatolia (Turkey) Kula (volcano), a volcanic field in Turkey Kula Plate, an ancient oceanic plate... For other uses, see Potlatch (disambiguation). ...

Many societies have strong prohibitions against turning gifts into commodities or capital. Anthropologist Wendy James writes that among the Uduk people of northeast Africa there is a strong custom that any gift that crosses subclan boundaries must be consumed, rather than invested.^[17] For example, an animal given as a gift must be eaten, not bred. Capital has a number of related meanings in economics, finance and accounting. ... The Uduk are a Nilo-Saharan group from eastern Sudan. ... A world map showing the continent of Africa Africa is the worlds second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. ...

However, as in the example of the Trobriand armbands and necklaces, this "perishing" may not consist of consumption as such, but of the gift moving on. In other societies, it is a matter of giving some other gift, either directly in return or to another party. To keep the gift and not give another in exchange, though, is reprehensible. "In folk tales," Hyde remarks, "the person who tries to hold onto a gift usually dies."^[18]

A true gift economy normally requires gift exchange to be more than simply a back-and-forth between two individuals. A Kashmiri tale tells of two Brahmin women who tried to fulfill their obligations for alms-giving simply by giving alms back and forth to one another. On their deaths they were transformed into two poisoned wells from which no one could drink, reflecting the barrenness of this weak simulacrum of giving.^[19] Kashmir (or Cashmere) may refer to: Kashmir region, the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent India, Kashmir conflict, the territorial dispute between India, Pakistan, and the China over the Kashmir region. ... The term Brahmin denotes both a member of the priestly class in the Hindu varna system, and a member of the highest caste in the caste system of Hindu society. ...

This notion of expanding the circle can be seen in societies where hunters give animals to priests, who sacrifice a portion to a deity (who, in turn, is expected to provide an abundant hunt). The hunters do not directly sacrifice to the deity themselves.^[19] This article is about religious workers. ... Marcus Aurelius and members of the Imperial family offer sacrifice in gratitude for success against Germanic tribes: contemporary bas-relief, Capitoline Museum, Rome For other uses, see Sacrifice (disambiguation). ... Look up deity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

The mixing of gift and commodity-based economies

Hyde argues that when a primarily gift-based economy is turned into a commodity-based economy, "the social fabric of the group is invariably destroyed."^[20] Much as there are prohibitions against turning gifts into capital, there are prohibitions against treating gift exchange as barter. Among the Trobrianders, for example, treating Kula as barter is considered a disgrace.^[21]

Commodity exchange bypasses the web of gratitude and obligation involved in gift-giving. It is possible, however, to reintroduce elements of a gift economy into commodity exchange, such as lagniappe given to a loyal customer, or a professional discount given to a colleague. Lagniappe means a little something extra. ...

Less happily, elements of a gift economy may be viewed from the standpoint of contract law and commodity exchange as nepotism, corruption, and bribery. Conversely, contract law based rational economic action aiming at profits may be viewed from the standpoint of a gift economy as unethical, amoral behavior. Look up nepotism in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Bribery is a crime implying a sum or gift given alters the behaviour of the person in ways not consistent with the duties of that person. ...

Hyde writes that commercial goods can generally become gifts, but when gifts become commodities, the gift "…either stops being a gift or else abolishes the boundary… Contracts of the heart lie outside the law and the circle of gifts is narrowed, therefore, whenever such contracts are narrowed to legal relationships."^[22]

Even the most commodity-based economies have social (and/or legal) prohibitions on what may be commodified. In many societies, one may give up a child for adoption, but may not sell one's child. In most U.S. states, almost any private sexual activity between consenting adults is either legal or informally tolerated if it does not involve the exchange of money; most intimate acts move into the realm of the criminal if money is exchanged. Organ donation is actively encouraged; however, the sale of organs is not merely considered a crime, but is almost universally considered a particularly unsavory crime. Organ donationcan only be peformed by untrained workers who do not have a drivers license and are poor. ...

Examples in modern culture

Elements of gift economy exist within the contemporary world economy. The blood bank system prevalent in several countries, including the United States, gives no significant explicit reciprocation for donations of blood. Most organ donation systems give no compensation of any sort to the donor or their family; payment in this matter is often considered suspect, even criminal.^[23] A blood bank is a cache or bank of blood or blood components, gathered as a result of blood donation, stored and preserved for later use in blood transfusions. ... Organ donation is the removal of specific tissues of the human body from a person who has recently died, or from a living donor, for the purpose of transplanting them into other persons. ...

Regiving networks are becoming very common in on-line forums where people offer items to anyone who wants them. A feature of these is that they explicitly prohibit any reward, financial or otherwise. The generally operate at a local level using volunteers who act as moderators to help efficient running of the forums. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Reuse. ...

Information is particularly suited to gift economics, as information can be copied and transmitted at practically no cost. It can be treated as a nonrival good: when you share information, you do not deprive yourself of the information (although you may deprive yourself of certain revenues that could be gained in the market economy from the intellectual property rights). A nonrival good in economics is one where one partys use of the good does not diminish anothers access to it or benefit from it. ... For the 2006 film, see Intellectual Property (film). ...

Traditional scientific research is an information gift economy. Scientists produce research papers and give them away through journals and conferences. Other scientists freely refer to such papers. The more citations a scientist has, the more prestige and respect he or she has, which can attract funding and positions. All scientists therefore benefit from the increased pool of knowledge. For other uses, see Prestige (disambiguation). ...

The free software community is an information gift economy. Programmers make their source code available, allowing anyone to copy and modify/improve the code. Individual programmers gain prestige and respect, and the community as a whole benefits from better software. Markus Giesler in his ethnography "Consumer Gift Systems" has developed music downloading as a system of social solidarity based on gift transactions.^[24] // The free software community is also called the open source community or the Linux community. ... Source code (commonly just source or code) is any series of statements written in some human-readable computer programming language. ...

Yochai Benkler in his paper Coase's Penguin, or Linux and the Nature of the Firm writes that Ronald Coase described the firm as a more efficient form of production than the market. Benkler suggests a third mode of production called Commons-based peer production. Charles Leadbeater writes about the Pro Am revolution and the Pro Am economy where amateurs motivated by non-economic reasons are growing in power and supporting the sharing economy. Efforts such as Creative Commons led by Lawrence Lessig encourage sharing and argue that society and corporations will benefit from sharing. Yochai Benkler speaking at UC Berkeley Boalt Hall School of law on 27 April 2006. ... Ronald Harry Coase (b. ... Commons-based peer production is a term coined by Yales Law professor Yochai Benkler to describe a new model of economic production in which the creative energy of large numbers of people is coordinated (usually with the aid of the internet) into large, meaningful projects, mostly without traditional hierarchical... Professional amateurs (also Pro-Ams or ProAms) is a conceptual term to describe a blurring between the distinction of professional and amateur, within any endeavour that could be called professional, such as writing, sports, computer programming, music, film, etc. ... The Creative Commons (CC) is a non-profit organization devoted to expanding the range of creative work available for others legally to build upon and share. ... Not to be confused with Lawrence Lessing. ...

Jordan Hubbard, writing in Queue magazine although referring to open source as a barter economy, describes it as a gift economy: "The volunteer software engineers in the open source software community are far more likely to help those who have demonstrated their commitment to the success of the overall open source software development process."^[25] In other words, reciprocity is a broad community matter rather than explicit quid pro quo. Jordan K. Hubbard (born April 8, 1963 in Hawaii) is co-founder of the FreeBSD project. ... Open source refers to projects that are open to the public and which draw on other projects that are freely available to the general public. ... A 19th-centure example of barter: A sample labor for labor note for the Cincinnati Time Store. ... Quid pro quo (Latin for something for something [1]) indicates a more-or-less equal exchange or substitution of goods or services. ...

The Wikipedia web-based collaborative encyclopedia is, in most of its operations, a thriving gift economy. Hundreds of thousands of articles are available on Wikipedia, and none of their innumerable authors and editors receives any material reward. Wikipedia has been constructed entirely out of gifts, and gives information freely. From time to time Wikipedia has engaged in fundraising activities, asking people to contribute funds toward operating expenses; these donated funds are gifts, albeit explicitly solicited ones. A tiny portion of Wikipedia's income comes from product sales, mostly T-shirts, mugs, and the like, with Wikipedia logos. Because Wikipedia exists within a money economy, some expenses must be met with money, such as paying for servers, domain registration, and for certain IT work involved in server maintenance. Therefore, the information in Wikipedia is a gift economy, but some operational aspects of its website and related entities are not. Yahoo's provision of servers in Asia^[26] for Wikipedia is on a gift basis; there is no explicit quid pro quo. However, several people raised concerns that future reciprocation may be expected beyond the prestige.^[27][28] Wikipedia (IPA: , or ( ) is a multilingual, web-based, free content encyclopedia project, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization. ... Yahoo redirects here. ...

A long-term broadly based example is Beyond Barter, also known as The Los Angeles Skills Pool. The members of Beyond Barter have, since 1975, shared services of all kinds with each other. Although there is no quid pro quo for receipt of a service, applicants for membership must offer one or more useful services, that will be available as needed.

Small-scale gift economies also exist in most families, with gifts of time, money, nourishment, shelter, and expertise being given without any overt negotiation of reciprocation. Similarly, parties can be considered to be small-scale, temporary gift economies, at which food, accommodation, beverages, entertainment and a gathering place are provided freely, with all or most attendees contributing without formal payment. Look up Family in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Another example would be when mentorship instills the gratitude that eventually leads the protegé to become a mentor in his or her own right. Mentoring refers to a developmental relationship between a more experienced mentor and a less experienced partner referred to as a mentoree (sometimes vernacularized into mentee) or protégé. // Historical The roots of the practice are lost in antiquity. ...

Free schools are an example of educational opportunities in a gift economy. Members of a community share skills, information, and knowledge outside of institutional control. A free school is a decentralized network in which skills, information, and knowledge are shared without hierarchy and the institutional environment of formal schooling. ... A community is a social group of organisms sharing an environment, normally with shared interests. ...

A gift economy is also an important cornerstone of the annual Burning Man festival (even though it costs quite a lot of money to gain admission), and of the give-away shop. The event is named after its Saturday night ritual, the burning of a wooden effigy. ... Give-away shops, freeshops, or free stores are second-hand stores that are starting to appear in Northern European towns and cities, especially in the Netherlands and Germany. ...

Food Not Bombs is a network of autonomous collectives that serve free vegetarian food in a growing number of countries. Logo Food Not Bombs is a loose-knit group of independent collectives, serving free vegan and vegetarian food to others. ...

Pacific Island societies prior to the nineteenth century had essentially gift economies, which still endure in parts of the Pacific today - for example in some outer islands of the Cook Islands. ^[29] In Tokelau, despite the gradual appearance of a market economy, a form of gift economy remains through the practice of inati, the strictly egalitarian sharing of all food resources in each atoll.^[30] Today, there are significant diasporic Pacific Islander communities in New Zealand, Australia and the United States. Although they have become participants in those countries' market economies, some seek to retain practices linked to an adapted form of gift economy, such as reciprocal gifts of money, or remittances back to their home community. The notion of reciprocal gifts is seen as essential to the fa'aSamoa ("Samoan way of life"), the anga fakatonga ("Tongan way of life"), and the culture of other diasporic Pacific communities.^[31] The Pacific Ocean has an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 islands; the exact number is unknown. ... A market economy (also called a free market economy or a free enterprise economy) is an economic system in which the production and distribution of goods and services take place through the mechanism of free markets (though completley useless to some dumbasses) guided by a free price system. ... Portion of a Pacific atoll showing two islets on the ribbon or barrier reef separated by a deep pass between the ocean and the lagoon. ... For other uses, see Diaspora (disambiguation). ... Income, generally defined, is the money that is received as a result of the normal business activities of an individual or a business. ...

Criticism

According to the critics the English word "gift" is usually a very poor translation of the wide variety of words actually used by hunter-gatherer and other cultures to describe their transactions and obligations. It is also a poor metaphor for describing the wide variety of such forms. The term "gift" was applied to "primitive cultures" by missionaries and colonial anthropologists who oversimplified their sophisticated and obscure transactions. The term is also paternalistic, comparing sophisticated native transactions to the traditions of Western children, such as the Christmas gift exchange. This colonial legacy has been overlaid by a romantic yearning for the more innocent sounding transactions of our childhood, perpetuating the myth of a "gift economy" into post-colonial anthropology and ideology. ^[32]

On a more fundamental level, staunch advocates of a free-market economy and trading value-for-value criticize the notion of a gift economy as immoral, impractical, or both.^{[citation needed]}

Theoretical obstacles to a pure gift economy

Several obstacles that might oppose the implementation of a pure gift economy (advocated by Peter Kropotkin) have been put forward by theorists from a range of disciplines. Limited forms of a gift economy exist between families, in the context of friendship, or within small communes, such as the Economy of the Iroquois in their relatively small tribes. However, as the size of the economy increases such as in modern cities, the ability of a gift economy to comply with this economy of scale may encounter obstacles because the links or memories individuals must make or have about between other members of the community become more numerous in order to apply the proper punitive measures to those who refuse to work when they have such an ability. ^{[citation needed]}
Prince Peter (Pyotr) Alexeyevich Kropotkin (Russian: ) (December 9, 1842–February 8, 1921) was one of Russias foremost anarchists and one of the first advocates of anarchist communism: the model of society he advocated for most of his life was that of a communalist society free from central government. ... Look up Family in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other uses, see Friendship (disambiguation). ... A Commune is a kind of intentional community where most resources are shared and there is little or no personal property. ... Iroquois women at work grinding corn or dried berries (1664 engraving). ... For other uses, see City (disambiguation). ... ...

Milton Friedman and other free market and rational choice theorists argue that alternatives to free market economies will provide weak incentives, and criticises such alternatives because he does not believe there is any incentive for innovation or production as time progresses. With such weak incentives, they believe that very few goods or services will be produced for society compared to a market economy. They believe that without property arrangements, prices, and wages, there is no way to calculate individuals' needs and wants, and hoarding may result. Milton Friedman (July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American Nobel Laureate economist and public intellectual. ... Rational choice theory assumes human behavior is guided by instrumental reason. ... A market economy (also called a free market economy or a free enterprise economy) is an economic system in which the production and distribution of goods and services take place through the mechanism of free markets (though completley useless to some dumbasses) guided by a free price system. ...

Austrian economists argue that general prosperity in the modern economy depends on a highly elaborate and global division of knowledge and labor. Non-local division of labor in turn requires a market price mechanism based on transactions between strangers who, beyond prices and some other simple contractual terms, are generally ignorant of each other's needs. The "gift economy," on the other hand, depends on high degrees of reputation, trust, and mutual knowledge of those with whom one transacted. It is necessarily thus limited to a network of friends and relatives, a group no larger than the Dunbar number. According to their analysis, it would thus reduce the division of labor, and result in universal poverty in larger groups. The Austrian School is a school of economic thought which rejects opposing economists reliance on methods used in natural science for the study of human action, and instead bases its formalism of economics on relationships through logic or introspection called praxeology. ... Dunbars number (also known as the Dunbar number or the Monkeysphere) is a value significant in sociology and anthropology. ...

Because such views generally do not attack the gift economy per se, but alternatives to free market economies in general, proponents of a pure gift economy advocate that other social mechanisms within a gift economy will replace the need for prices, which carry information about needs and wants. In this context, other individuals make the judgment which wants or needs is to be fulfilled first, in contrast to a market economy where goods would be allocated to the consumer offering the highest price. Those offering and giving the best products would then gain standing in the community.

Kropotkin argues that mutual benefit is a stronger incentive than mutual strife and is eventually more effective collectively in the long run to drive individuals to produce. The reason given is that a gift economy stresses the concept of increasing the other's abilities and means of production, which would then (theoretically) increase the ability of the community to reciprocate to the giving individual. Other solutions to prevent inefficiency in a pure gift economy due to wastage of resources that were not allocated to the most pressing need or want stresses the use of several methods involving collective shunning where collective groups keep track of other individuals' productivity, rather than leaving each individual having to keep track of the rest of society by him or herself. Means of production (abbreviated MoP; German: Produktionsmittel), are the combination of the means of labor and the subject of labor used by workers to make products. ... Shunning is the act of deliberately avoiding association with, and habitually keeping away from an individual or group. ...

Gift economy in fiction

• The Mars trilogy by author Kim Stanley Robinson suggests that new human societies that develop away from Earth could migrate toward a gift economy (notably the economy of Mars in the story).
• The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin is partly about a society using a gift economy.
• News from Nowhere by William Morris is a utopian novel about a society which operates on a gift economy
• The Great Explosion by Eric Frank Russell describes the encounter of a military survey ship and a Gandhian pacifist society that operates on a gift economy.
• Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow describes future society where rejuvenation and body-enhancement have made death obsolete and material goods are no longer scarce, resulting in a reputation-based (whuffie) economic system.

The Mars trilogy is a series of award-winning science fiction novels by Kim Stanley Robinson, chronicling the settlement and terraforming of the planet Mars. ... For the late American actress, see Kim Stanley. ... This article is about Earth as a planet. ... Adjectives: Martian Atmosphere Surface pressure: 0. ... The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia is a 1974 utopian science fiction novel by Ursula K. Le Guin, set in the same fictional universe as that of The Left Hand of Darkness (the Hainish Cycle). ... Ursula Kroeber Le Guin [ˌɜɹsÉ™lÉ™ ËŒkɹobɜɹ ləˈgWɪn] (born October 21, 1929) is an American author. ... News from Nowhere is a classic work of utopian fiction written by the artist, designer and socialist pioneer William Morris. ... This page is about William Morris, the writer, designer and socialist. ... The Great Explosion is a satirical science-fiction novel by Eric Frank Russell, first published in 1962. ... Eric Frank Russell (January 6, 1905 - February 28, 1978) was an English science fiction author, producing some of the best humorous science fiction of his time. ... Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (October 2, 1869 – January 30, 1948) (Devanagari: मोहनदास करमचन्द गांधी), called Mahatma Gandhi, was the charismatic leader who brought the cause of Indias independence from British colonial rule to... Down And Out in the Magic Kingdom is a 2003 science fiction book, the first novel by Canadian author and digital-rights activist Cory Doctorow. ... Cory Doctorow (born July 17, 1971) is a blogger, journalist and science fiction author who serves as co-editor of the blog Boing Boing. ... Look up reputation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Whuffie is the ephemeral, reputation-based currency of Cory Doctorows sci-fi novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. ...

See also

• Economy of the Iroquois, which used gift-giving as its main mode of intertribal trade
• Xenia (Greek)
• Mutual Aid
• Burning Man

Iroquois women at work grinding corn or dried berries (1664 engraving). ... Xenia (Greek ξενία, xenía) is the Greek concept of hospitality . ... The term mutual aid has multiple meanings: Mutual aid, a tenet of anarchist thought Mutual aid, an agreement between emergency responders Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, a book by anarchist Peter Kropotkin Mutual aid, in social work with groups Category: ... The event is named after its Saturday night ritual, the burning of a wooden effigy. ...

Notes

For the wiki software used and developed by the Wikimedia Foundation, see MediaWiki. ... For the organization that manages Wikipedia and its sister projects, see Wikimedia Foundation. ... Look up Aotearoa in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

References

• Marcel Mauss: The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies. Originally published as Essai sur le don. Forme et raison de l'échange dans les sociétés archaïques in 1925, modern English edition: ISBN 0-393-32043-X. Lewis Hyde calls this "the classic work on gift exchange". ^[33]
• Lewis Hyde: The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property, 1983 (ISBN 0-394-71519-5), especially part I, "A Theory of Gifts", part of which was originally published as "The Gift Must Always Move" in Co-Evolution Quarterly No. 35, Fall 1982.

Marcel Mauss (May 10, 1872 – February 10, 1950) was a French sociologist best known for his role in elaborating on and securing the legacy of his uncle Émile Durkheim and the Année Sociologique. ... Lewis Hyde is a scholar and writer whose scholarly work focuses on the nature of imagination, creativity, and property. ...

External links

• Links to numerous gift economy related articles
• Center for the Study of the Gift Economy, a website strongly expounding the gift economy from a feminist perspective
• The Economy of Gifts by Thanissaro Bhikkhu
• Emergy and Population in a Natural Economy An emergy-based gift economy is discussed. It is referred to as a natural economy because the energy costs of a monetary system are avoided.

Thanissaro Bhikkhu (Geoffrey DeGraff) (1949 - ) is an American Buddhist monk of the Thai forest kammatthana tradition. ... The neutrality of this article is disputed. ... Natural economy refers to a type of economy in which money is not used in the transfer of resources among people. ...

Further reading

• Seth Mallios: "The Deadly Politics of Giving" (2006). University of Alabama Press.
• Sahlins, Marshall: "Stone Age Economics" (1972). Aldine. ISBN.
• Titmuss, Richard: "The Gift Relationship: From Human Blood to Social Policy" (1970). Reprinted by the New Press, ISBN.
• Tapscott, Don and Williams, Anthony: "Wikinomics : How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything" (2006). Portfolio, ISBN.
• Cheal, David: "The Gift Economy" (1998). Routledge, ISBN.
• Godbout, Jacques: "The world of gift" (1998). McGill-Queen's University Press, ISBN.
• Vaughan, Genevieve: "ForGiving: A Feminist Criticism of Exchange" (1997). ISBN. Free online.
• Vaughan, Genevieve: "Homo Donans" (2006). Anomaly Press, Austin, Texas. Free online.