Name: 【TED-Ed】What is a gift economy? - Alex Gendler
Uploaded: 2015-01-09T16:54:12.000Z
Duration: 4 min 6 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

people around the world will give and receive presents.

Modal verbs - B1

You might even get  a knitted sweater from an aunt.

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

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

All of these things might not  sound so strange

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

a gift economy consists  of the relationships

Gift economies have existed  throughout human history.

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,

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

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

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.

with someone always  indebted to someone else.

or with something of exactly equal value,

may be read as ending  the social relationship.

So, are gift economies exclusive  to small-scale societies

gift economies function alongside  a market system for other exchanges.

parts of our own societies  work in similar ways.

operate as a mix of barter  and a gift economy,

where selling things  for money is strictly taboo.

gift economies are emerging  as an alternative to intellectual property

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.

Our idea of a free gift  without social obligations

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

the idea of strengthening bonds  through giving and reciprocity

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