|
Home
Theory
of The Gift Economy
Practice
Many Voices discuss The Gift Economy
Publications
Links
Contact Us
|
Insights on the Gift and the Insight of the Gift
By Paola Melchiori
The theory of the gift is a complex system of analysis at different levels, that runs transversally across different disciplinary fields, from economy to semiotics, to politics. When the idea of this article for Athanor came up one year ago, I was thinking of a more theoretical approach. Now, one year after, having, in one way or another, discussed, criticized, experimented "the gift "as a theory and as a practice, I realize that there is another level, beyond or beneath the theory, at which "the gift" works, catches and can be perhaps more easily shared . It has started to strike me how it is somehow extraordinary that despite the discussions, the reservations that one can have towards a particular aspect of Gen Vaughan's theory of the gift , so many women, almost by instinct, are taken by it, recognize in it the power of an insight, important because it changes a whole conceptual framework. It is this level, which lies behind and beyond the theory, that has started to interest me. I saw it at work with very different people and I have the impression that this is one important condition of its diffusion. It is that particular level that I want to focus here, leaving the clarification of the manifold aspects of the theory to its author. I would therefore "treat" "the gift," as we call it in our network, as a whole, without discussing its internal aspects, as an extraordinary insight, an orientation system, a tool for research.
1. A certain functioning of a paradigm
"The gift" marks, in the first place, a shift of paradigm. As happened in the emergence of feminism some invisible evidence comes to the forefront, to light, and this changes what we see and the framework through which we think. The emergence of feminism was the revelation of some of these invisible evidences. It made other voices be heard and other realities become active and visible. As in the famous gestalt drawings, you start seeing different pictures in the frame. That is true, also, for the gift. Its "evidence" corresponds to the reality of its diffusion, of its "being at work," all the time, everywhere, as women are in the world . Its invisibility corresponds to the strategic need that the diffusion, the importance, the dimension of this work of women, (which is generally and commonly identified as motherhood but which is more than that), remain as usable and as invisible to the system as it is to the same subjects who do it. Our intention to dig it out from invisibility is a first step to recognize it, value it and...find other ways of functioning and recognition.
2. The "hidden life of the social fabric"
"The gift" reveals a hidden life in the structure of societies, making visible the real mechanism of its economies, and even more important, reveals the paradox of a simultaneous importance to the social fabric that is as intense as the need of its permanent invisibilization .
Somebody could argue that reclaiming the hidden role of women in economics is not so new. The "discovery" of the " hidden economic and emotional work of women," with its different forms in different societies dates back several years. That discovery was the beginning of feminism. It is today the calculated basis of structural adjustment programs. The discovery of women's work was more dramatic where the so called "domestic work" was in fact the economic work able to keep alive thousands of people. Even more dramatic was the fact that this evidence was and is invisible not only to politicians or academics but also to the very women who are the authors and the victims of it. This invisibility to the same eyes of the people who practice it is a condition that the gift shares with the invisibility of the work of women. But the gift is more than that.
Even if it is easy to reduce it to its economic aspect, the gift implies more than the revelation of a hidden work, of the hidden economy of gratuity, systematically plundered and used by the economic system .It restates the right priorities between economy and humanity, or politics. The gift re-affirms the absolute priority of the human relationships over its own creations, the economic and the social system. It is, in my opinion , the clarity of this message, as naïve as it might be considered, that is the reason why women "respond" or react to it so strongly. Today, because of the need for an economy of survival, in its most dense meaning, an economy of life which is opposed to an economy of self-destruction is more urgent than ever. It helps also in understanding why, when the discovery of the hidden work of women ended in an economic proposal for its recognition, many women did not like it. The gift goes to the root, to the relational meaning still embedded in any work, and gives an implicit explanation of the reason why the idea of paying the domestic work had and has little appeal to women. The idea of "gift giving" as the basis of a society based on the idea of relationships goes to the foundation of economics, where the connection between human need and the system of economics is still visible. Perhaps this is the political meaning of its semiotic aspect: the gift aspect embedded in language is the real paradigm for and of a human relationship that can found the social fabric.
3. Losing all
To accept this statement of priority we need to imagine that "losing something," in this case our standard and pattern of life, "progress," privilege and "civilization" is not a loss, but the beginning of some new possibility. Unfortunately history has shown that human beings do not respond to laws of self preservation or self protection, or common sense. It seems that only "the day after," only the presence of a catastrophe, is able to teach something to human beings. A certain number of recent catastrophes have shown us that the gift is what essentially is left at work in times of "sinking ships," it works economically and psychologically: it keeps the social fabric going.
Some experiences in countries hit by economic and political catastrophes have shown us that what is a catastrophe from a certain point of view has also the capacity to make visible and arouse unforeseen possibilities. That is the case of Nigeria some yeas ago, when the economy had stopped and the central state disappeared in general strikes for a month. At the time of that crisis, a Nigerian friend on the phone was telling me how it was terrible... but fantastic too. "We are relying on ourselves and things start working better." It was an economy of barter but through barter some other relationships among people were made possible. The same happened more recently in Argentina. How many others we don't know of? When I met my friends suffering from hunger and loss of jobs wondering what I could do to help, I still remember my surprise when they arrived smiling in that lobby of the hotel, saying how much better they felt anyhow compared to before, how less depressed people were, struggling with real needs. The collapse of the economy, the loss of the value of money had re awakened people's strengths, inventions, resources. Again the absence of money launched an economy of barter, yes, but the barter is an appearance of the work of a relationship of trust which is the real gold, the basic currency, a gift.
So the exchange hidden in barter was hiding the joy of the possibility of discovery of the value of other relationships among people, who had to trust each other and to "give gifts " to each other, It was because there was no choice, yes, but this was allowing other possibilities to come out. During these months in Argentina something else was at work and this something else was relieving people's moods and spirits so that the terrible situation in which they lived was anyhow better than the terrible depression of seeing neo liberal laws winning everywhere. Many have observed that improvement even if very few have seen the gendered aspect of this economy.
The same thing was told to me by friends in Saint Petersburg, when in one night, the ruble fell and people found themselves poor. They said they had found something else precious and liberating. Other values. This is not a question of willing not to see the personal and political tragedy of these situations. The people themselves who lived them were the ones who highlighted this aspect. It is important to be clear that I don't bless these crises, created by a system devoted to the systematic destruction of lives, social bonds, nature and hopes. I only highlight that the crises are showing us these characteristics as well as some ways out, and these ways out sometimes include daring to make a mental leap, to imagine that some different ways can work.
In all these societies it was the gift at work: other economies were being created, all based on the absence of the symbol of greed: money. And in all these situation women were protagonists. Let us ask ourselves what this means.
3. Which abundance?
The gift is based on the idea that we are not in a world of scarcity but of abundance and that scarcity is being artificially created to keep power and control over people. Without being naive about this and recognizing the tragedies due to scarcity, the gift shows other priorities in human lives on which to build alternatives. It is based on the importance of human presence and on the priority of relationships and of the strengths that arise from the presence and sharing. Thinking of this frame as an abundance paradigm is a radical choice. It means accept other values where "abundance" is made up of the possibilities of human beings, the inventions, the strengths of social relationships. In Northern countries also, the success of ethical commerce and banking, while still hidden inside the system of exchange ,and trying to survive within the system of competition, clearly underlines that there is something mportant for people beyond interest and money. Saying, as in the Italian slogan of the ethical bank that the "best interest is the interest of all" means to state the priority of social bonds over economics. The system is now trying to take advantage of the fact that despite all the criticism, many people believe in this statement. What is perhaps becoming clear is that even economically, ethical investments mean also better investments because transparent and made in more honest and solid businesses, The rapid appearance of ethical investments in many banks show at the same time the success and the ambiguity of this message and it opens they space for something in human beings which is perhaps not easy to prey upon and swallow: that people do not live, survive, and desire only on the basis of private interest.
Although here the gift is obliged to work in the context of the market and through the market, nevertheless the strength of its growing in both successes and sustainability lies in something else. It has to do with satisfaction of the need for human relationships, community building, presence to the others. Before this can be recognized however, it has to reach a critical mass and to be validated by a strong community. And this works and reinforces itself like a spiral. At the moment these proposals are systematically made invisible or naïve and at the same time are systematically plundered by what asserts itself as the only real economy. A further effort should be made to sustain the ultimate meaning hidden also in these new economies. However the many catastrophes of the strong arrogant economic system are today helping the emergence of the not-only- utopian value, of these proposals. They point out their growing realism.
4. Anticipation
Another characteristic of the gift is its possibility of anticipation of a possible future. Deciding to work with the gift initiates a series of theoretical and practical behaviours that allow us to look at things differently and to practice things differently. As Gen Vaughan might know better than anyone, to practice the gift, you need to live "already" in another world, to bear the weight of being considered out of the world, naïve, used up or worse, by "realistic" people, who think of themselves as the only ones with their " feet on the ground." Practicing a giving attitude in one's personal life also arouses interesting reactions. The most interesting one is a kind of slipping "disorientation".
It makes you see how people have lost even the possibility of thinking that it is possible to relate to others as human beings who share a common destiny. I have started to like this moment of dizziness, of looseness...I see there the (fortunate) loss of the normal paradigm which, like the floor where one walks, has become so strong as to be confused with a natural condition. Through this little hole of meaning something else, a small doubt, can open unforseen paths: the still vague foggy notion that something else can work, exist, among people.
5. Past and future
The gift is a possibility launched towards the future but strongly rooted in the past. Everybody who has worked in Africa or in other communities where a survival culture and a community culture are still alive, knows that this is not an esoteric or a naïve message, but the result of the old wisdom of peoples who have learnt and refined a knowledge for survival through the centuries. And this survival is based on the possibility of overcoming the priority of economics. When goods and objects have abandoned us, the preservation of social relationships is the only "wealth of nations." It tells us what many real African friends consider richness and wealth: to have peaceful neighborhoods and keep good relationships in a community; and what they consider the basis of power: the ability to manage and solve the conflicts in a society. The basis of human relationship is the capacity of giving , without thinking of a return. A gift. Not in the obliged sense of Marcel Mauss, but in a sense which could free the receiver from the material and moral obligation to give back. To awaken this capability in the other is the open possibility of the gift which opens up for a return. This logic is the opposite of exchange, in its deepest meaning, not necessarily in its practice. It is in this sense that the gift is a challenge that fascinates. "The gift economy " is in general mentioned as an economy only when talking about "primitive" societies. Today it evokes naivete, utopian dreams or primitive communities. I think, how strange: the more patriarchy has to rely on pure arrogance, the more the alternative proposals seem naïve, against common sense and impossible to practice. Instead there is not a single drop of nostalgia for the primitive societies here. The gift launches you into the future and at the same time is rooted in the wisdoms of the past, with the conviction that the only future we have lies in the ability to recreate the knowledge, technology, and wisdoms that come from the deeply rooted laws that can help us survive: the logic of relationship, which is the logic of the only "real economy" in the best sense of this word.
This is the shift of paradigm. And to live already "as if." Practice different "rules of the game," be it at a personal or a political level. Show how this paradigm works, in fact.
6. Implications
This is a choice full of implications. As a consequence, other aspects of theory are illuminated. I want only to make an example of one of these consequences. The most interesting to me is how the whole notion of rights and justice based on a notion of equality, changes. Justice in the framework of the gift leaves aside any pretension of generalization and of returning the right amount, leaves aside the idea of punishment, of the compulsory reciprocity of giving back. Women's experiences are full of useful stories showing how what is apparently "equal and just" is not what is, deeply and profoundly, "giving justice." Perceived as "just," paying back is not healing the pain inflicted, the injustice done.
It helps to see that justice is not paying back, but doing something, which is sometimes the opposite of paying back, it is the healing cause by a small symbolic gesture. All the history of trying to find a way to redress the injustice of sexual violence shows the incommensurability of the notion of justice. Such justice cannot be general, but individualized, at the same time absolutely individual and precarious. It is not by chance that trying to apply justice, the normal paradigm, does not work with women. Not with their stories, not with the kind of crimes they are submitted to The symbolic gesture that heals is generally a small, light sign, that breaks the pre-established mental setting which doesn't have the inner space, the mental possibility of seeing, of identifying something different. It breaks in like a wind from another mental dimension....and one discovers that "justice" can be a small, unforeseen gesture from which a person drinks a different water, a gift, the restablishing of a relationship of recognition, of seeing the other.
When payments in money are proposed to redress injustice, women many times feel even worse, lawyers tell us. Why? Is it only because women are not "at ease" with money? They should become smarter? More developed? We could try to read this "inability" differently. Perhaps money back is not what is deeply wanted, or what is necessary:
But this "jumping out," this "practising a politics like frogs," means also the courage to get out from the notion embedded in " a politics of rights" which is the notion of the "Rightness of Equality." If we look at it with some mental freedom "equality" is not necessarily "justice." The appeal to equality does not even protect women, in the end. On the contrary, even if it uncovers the injustice, it creates conditions for other new injustices, at the same time, throwing women into a framework where they are not protected but are even more exposed to the laws of a world whose rules of functioning are not created by them and for them. Equality throws women into the Army. And this is not only the reality but also symbolic. This search for a different notion reminds me of the idea of justice and beauty by the woman philosopher Simone Weil .She worked much on the notion of justice, seeing it as re-establishing a feeling of balance, equilibrium, like the balance that a seaman finds trying to drive a boat in the sea, never established, always precarious and to be reinvented again and again.
7. Opening paths: A conclusion
These inadequacies show the need for other conceptual frameworks , in all fields of knowledge and practices, able to struggle against one logic by using a completely different one. What is required is a logic that does not work by mirroring the other, but finds other oblique, unforeseen, unlinear paths, jumping out from the system, which is also a mental framework. Again, the gratuity of the gift is one of those concepts, which alludes to this new paradigm, opens the space and the vacuum needed to invent it.
The Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano expresses the spirit of the gift well in this poem which could be our closure, helping to open the spaces and the courage in our minds to see and think out of our cages, differently.
The Soul in the Air
According to some old traditions, the Tree of Life grows upside down.
The trunk and branches downward and the roots upward.
The tree top reaches down in the Earth, while the roots look towards the sky.
It does not offer its fruits but its origins.
It does not hide under the earth what it has as dearest, as most vulnerable,
It throws it to the storms: it offers its roots, living flesh, to the winds of the world.
This is Life, says the Tree of Life.
Significantly, one of the songs written by Gen Vaughan has the title, the " Tree of Life."
|
return to top |
