Thanks to a recommendation from either Malcom Gladwell or Seth Godin (I'll attempt to track the source in some later post,) I have been reading a work by Lewis Hyde, called "The Gift."
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| The Gift, as seen on my kitchen table |
Around 1/3 of the way through, and thus far Hyde has been detailing gift culture--highlighting social examples from across history where exchange within, across (and sometimes beyond) a group is not calculated or transactional, but liberated from our sense of market to instead flow in some other dimension of generosity and collective identity.
The gift--or, gifting-- serves to bring and keep people together with a common allegiance that baffles our current idea of markets, society, statehood, etc.
Chapter six is an interesting trip, looking at how societies do and have, historically, treated people as a kind of property in their gift economy.
The chapter, titled "A Female Property," takes a look at the ways women are (or are not) "given" in marriage, representing a flow in the gift-economy of life. Hyde also takes a look at the way sacrifice is involved in this cycle of the life-gift, where women in history tend to be gifted life, be a gift, and consequently gift life (give birth.)
When men are wrapped into the life-gift-economy, it is usually as a living sacrifice (resulting in death,) where the man gives his life for the sake of their group.
Hyde also gives some attention to the way the organ transplant economy (rather, the innovation that permits transplants) demanded a re-writing of the legality of ownership of one's body.
The chapter is helpful in thinking about what it means to have ownership of yourself, your children (what role you may have in their life,) your body after death, and for thinking about how you might give yourself to a cause or a group.
The gift idea is that all of these ways of owning/stewarding/giving are radically different that a classical economic construct of exchange. Perhaps I can unpack this better, later.
I'm briefing over the chapter's content to get to a footnote I found within it, on page 126:
If our life is a gift to begin with, we tend to be compelled to give it away.
So, to what, to whom do I give my life?
Is it worthy of the life I have to give?
Where do you give yours?
I thought I would sit and write on this, but time--a currency representing where my gift is given, compels me to cut short this entry. All in the service of aligning how I spend my time with where I want my time spent--where I want my gift given.
Rest assured, I'll be meditating on this question.
I invite you to join me, and to share any thoughts or questions you may have.
In love,
Gabriel
