PRAISE FOR Women and the Gift Economy: A Radically Different Worldview is Possible edited by Genevieve Vaughan Finally! This is the book we urgently need in these neoliberal, destructive, disori- ented times. We all know that a profound change in our economy and culture is necessary, that we need to think in another way. But how? The authors of this collection of articles—all feminists, all peace workers, from the North and the South—demonstrate convincingly that “a radically different world view is pos- sible” when we look at the world with Genevieve Vaughan’s radically different paradigm: gift giving instead of the coercive and compulsive exchange paradigm of the market economy. —VERONIKA BENNHOLDT-THOMSEN, co-author of The Subsistence Perspec- tive: Beyond the Globalized Economy and Women: The Last Colony Wow, what a great book. If more people could embrace this kind of thinking the world would be a much better place. In the tradition of my people one’s status in society in not based upon how much wealth one possesses and displays but rather it is based upon what one gives away. Thus according to our traditions the creators of this volume deserve special recognition as their work is a gift for the rest of us who have the privilege of reading it. —D. MEMEE LAVELL-HARVARD, President, Ontario Native Women’s As- sociation and Vice President, Native Women’s Association of Canada Those of us honoured to know Genevieve Vaughan know that, for at least twenty years, she has been working tirelessly towards defining and describing the “gift economy, presenting it as a workable alternative to patriarchal capitalism. This anthology, Women and the Gift Economy, offers the fruit of myriad scholars on the subject, examining the gift economy from nearly every imaginable vantage point—from history, spirituality, sexuality, and matriarchal social structure to language, finance, childcare, and warfare. Moreover, Indigenous scholars working from their own cultures’ ways of knowing receive a representation and a respect equal to what is afforded their European and Euroamerican colleagues. Women and the Gift Economy is guaranteed to guide the reader into new and invigorating paradigms, clarifying the economic choices facing humanity. —BARBARA ALICE MANN, author of Iroquoian Women: The Gantowisas and editor of and contributor to Daughters of Mother Earth Genevieve Vaughan has for decades been active in progressive causes—generous with her time, energy, and material resources. Now she gives the best gift of all: her elegant, intelligent, and transformative thinking. This is, simply, a visionary book. Read it, let it into your heart and brain—and you will change the world. —ROBIN MORGAN The gift economy is prevalent in most ancient Indigenous societies the world over, many still existing today. Gifting operates especially well among people with fewer resources, in rural areas and urban townships. It is through sharing gifts that many of us survive. Genevieve Vaughan’s feminist gift economy is a reminder to all of us about this ancient practice still prevalent in many of our societies, especially in Africa and the global South more broadly, and her life’s work in this area perfectly epitomizes the philosophies underpinning the book: it is the gift economy in practice. —BERNEDETTE MUTHIEN, poet and activist, director of ENGENDER, South Africa This collection, in its critique of patriarchal capitalism and in its call for a logic of gift-giving over exchange, makes possible a new understanding of—and apprecia- tion for—the true economic and social value of mothering. In this, the book is an invaluable contribution to motherhood studies. —ANDREA O’REILLY, Associate Professor, York University, and author of Toni Morrison and Motherhood: A Politics of the Heart Based on Genevieve Vaughan’s theory of the gift economy, this book offers a radi- cally different world view for 21st century feminism with powerful implications for challenging patriarchy and the market economy in building a sustainable, safe, equitable world society. In the introduction Vaughan outlines the logic and impact of the gift economy. Vaughan’s approach provides an alternative paradigm in which “mothering” in all the senses of the term is at the foundation of the social model for being human. Together with the articles that follow her introduction, the book provides a unified feminist philosophy in which the logic of social in- teraction is based on “gifting” that is, giving to nurture growth by satisfying needs in response to which the receiver models the giver by giving to others. This is a must read for feminists in all countries for it provides a coherent philosophical system based on the power of nurturing for rethinking political and economic thought just as the Enlightenment once based its philosophical innovations on the power of human reason. —PEGGY REEVES SANDAY, Professor of Anthropology, University of Penn- sylvania and author of Women at the Center: Life in a Modern Matriarchy Anyone who wonders why a tree giving us oxygen is only profitable when it’s cut down, or why a train wreck increases the Gross Domestic Product but nurturing children does not, is on the way to rejecting patriarchal capitalism. Genevieve Vaughan and her collection of essays by activists and visionaries show us an al- ternate economic worldview that existed for most of human history, and could exist again. This brave and path-breaking book will give you hope—and hope is a form of planning.” —GLORIA STEINEM WOMEN AND THE GIFT ECONOMY A Radically Different Worldview is Possible WOMEN AND THE GIFT ECONOMY A Radically Different Worldview is Possible EDITED BY GENEVIEVE VAUGHAN INANNA PUBLICATIONS AND EDUCATION INC. TORONTO, CANADA Copyright © 2007 Inanna Publications and Education Inc. Individual copyright to their work is retained by the authors. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically or mechanically, including photocopying, recording, or any information or storage retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Published in Canada by Inanna Publications and Education Inc. 210 Founders College, York University 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3 Telephone: (416) 736-5356 Fax (416) 736-5765 Email: [email protected] Web site: www.yorku.ca/inanna Printed and Bound in Canada. Cover Design: Val Fullard Interior Design: Luciana Ricciutelli Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication: Women and the gift economy : a radically different worldview is possible / edited by Genevieve Vaughan Essays originated at a conference, “A radically different worldview is possible: the gift economy inside and outside patriarchal capitalism,” held in Las Vegas, Nevada, November 2004. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-9736709-7-4 1. Gifts – economic aspects. 2. Matriarchy. 3. Indigenous peoples – Economic conditions. 4. Sharing – Economic aspects. 5. Mutualism – Economic aspects. 6. Social change. 7. Feminist economics. I. Vaughan, Genevieve, 1939- HQ1381.W652 2007 306.3’4 C2007-901648-0 Contents Acknowledgements v Introduction: A Radically Different Worldview is Possible Genevieve Vaughan 1 I. The Gift Economy, Past and Present Indigenous Knowledge and Gift Giving: Living in Community Jeannette Armstrong 41 Pan Dora Revisited: From Patriarchal Woman-Blaming to a Feminist Gift Imaginary Kaarina Kailo 50 The Gift Logic of Indigenous Philosophies in the Academy Rauna Kuokkanen 71 She Gives the Gift of Her Body Vicki Noble 84 The Goddess Temple of Sekhmet: A Gift Economy Project Patricia Pearlman 96 Matriarchal Society and the Gift Paradigm: Motherliness as an Ethical Principle Heide Goettner-Abendroth 99 Significs and Semioethics: Places of the Gift in Communication Today Susan Petrilli 108 i WOMEN AND THE GIFT ECONOMY The Biology of Business: Crisis as a Gifting Opportunity Elisabet Sahtouris 121 II. Gifts Exploited by the Market Capitalist Patriarchy and the Negation of Matriarchy: The Struggle for a “Deep” Alternative Claudia von Werlhof 139 Big Mountain Black Mesa: The Beauty Way Louise Benally 154 The Tragedy of the Enclosures: An Eco-Feminist Perspective on Selling Oxygen and Prostitution in Costa Rica Ana Isla 157 Real Bodies, Place-Bound Work and Transnational Homemaking: A Feminist Project Mechthild Hart 171 The Rural Women’s Movement in South Africa: Land Reform and HIV/AIDs Sizani Ngubane 181 Endangered Species: The Language of Our Lives Margaret Randall 187 Facing the Shadow of 9-11 Carol Brouillet 193 Heterosexism and the Norm of Normativity Genevieve Vaughan 199 III: Gifts in the Shadow of Exchange The Khoekhoe Free Economy: A Model for the Gift Yvette Abrahams 217 Gift Giving Across Borders Maria Jimenez 222 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS The Gift Economy in the Caribbean: The Gift and the Wind Peggy Antrobus 230 The Children of the World: A Gift Assetou Madeleine Auditore 235 Solidarity Economics: Women’s Banking Networks in Senegal Rabia Adelkarim-Chikh 238 Women’s Funding Partnerships Tracy Gary 241 Gift Giving and New Communication Technologies Andrea Alvarado Vargas and María Suárez Toro 248 Trapped by Patriarchy: Can I Forgive Men? Erella Shadmi 253 Women’s Community Gifting: A Feminist Key to an Alternative Paradigm Linda Christiansen-Ruffman 257 IV. Gift Giving for Social Transformation Indigenous Women and Traditional Knowledge: Reciprocity is the Way of Balance Mililani Trask 293 Supryia and the Reviving of a Dream: Toward a New Political Imaginary Corinne Kumar 301 Reflecting on Gifting and the Gift Economy in El Salvador Marta Benavides 310 From Forced Gifts to Free Gifts Paola Melchiori 318 The Gift of Community Radio Frieda Werden 327 iii WOMEN AND THE GIFT ECONOMY Gifting at the Burning Man Festival Renea Roberts 353 Activism: A Creative Gift for a Better World Brackin Firecracker 356 Women’s Giving: Feminist Transformation and Human Welfare Angela Miles 364 Position Statement for a Peaceful World 375 Index 381 iv