From Debts to Gifts…
Metadata
Highlights
- Comparatively, a gift economy model prioritises living beings’ needs as the way to determine social interplay. Theoretically, in a gift-based society, no one would go without care or be hungry because their needs would be met. The gift economy challenges what it means, in a social sense, to be in pain, to dream, or desire. (View Highlight)
- “informal mutual aid” by watching her mother, Hongmei, organise home visits within an informal network of friends in LA. “Partly coming from tradition, from Chinese culture, also from Buddhist teachings, immigrant survival tactics, and collectivist instincts, I think that what my mom does creates a way to embody solidarity.” Alice has described to me the way that her mother makes home visits when people she knows are not well or when she worries about them. She has explained to Alice some formal steps that she takes to observe and respond to needs in a way that is both friendly but also a structured home visit. A home visit includes bringing fresh foods, and other gifts that can help an ailing person. But the interesting thing is that “there’s the ‘home visit’ (拜访) as a colloquial Chinese etiquette thing, and it’s part of what she knows… but I would just note that she’s not doing any leading, devising, or formalising. It doesn’t have to happen at someone’s house or even in-person (lots of WeChat voice messages and gifts at the door during the pandemic instead). It’s really just a deeper way of checking which is this shared instinct that these folks have with each other, including my mother.” (View Highlight)
- For me, being able to experience the separation of giving from receiving (and vice versa) necessitates the understanding that we are a part of a community where there is enough to go around, and we trust that we do and will have what we need. It means that we can give freely without feeling like we are owed something. It also means that we can receive without feeling in debt to someone or something. (View Highlight)
- I think the arts sector as we know it should be abolished. There are more old and sick people than ever. I think that art institutions should turn into creatively run clinics, hospitals, elder care centres, childcare places. I think artists should become caregivers and they should re-imagine what medicine and care can look like outside of capitalism. (View Highlight)
- I think that if we lived in a gift economy, art and creativity would be a part of everyone or anyone’s life. It wouldn’t have to be a job or an identity or a market. I think the art world as we know it produces a lot of narcissistic characteristics in the people who are trapped inside of it (View Highlight)
- When I lived in Canada and began to harvest plants and medicines with badass Indigenous women and Two Spirit people, they laughed at me because I didn’t know how to speak to plants, and I didn’t foresee their needs or desires. You have to put down tobacco before you take something from a plant. You need to talk to it and ask permission, let it know what you are up to, and why you need it. Then you thank it. But no one gave me instructions or forced me, they just showed me by doing it. One day I was harvesting pine needles with a friend so we could make traditional baskets at the women’s prison. I heard laughing when I tried to speak with the trees. My friend had a special Ojibwe name for a laughing tree. The friend noticed that the trees were a weird colour for fall. She got very quiet for the afternoon. (View Highlight)
- If you recognise, as many Indigenous cultures do, that humans are land, then it is impossible to continue life as usual if you notice that your friend or family member, the land, is sick. I am not there yet but I know it is possible because I have seen it. Everything would change if we felt like we WERE the land. If the things that came out of the land were also us, they wouldn’t be resources. They would be friends. (View Highlight)
- My hope is that by creating systems where people can experience solidarity and can see themselves in each other, they will begin to see themselves as more than resources. I think this will make it easier for them to see other people that way too. And in some way I think that is what is necessary to create a web of mutuality and reciprocity. (View Highlight)
From Debts to Gifts…
Metadata
Highlights
- Comparatively, a gift economy model prioritises living beings’ needs as the way to determine social interplay. Theoretically, in a gift-based society, no one would go without care or be hungry because their needs would be met. The gift economy challenges what it means, in a social sense, to be in pain, to dream, or desire. (View Highlight)
- “informal mutual aid” by watching her mother, Hongmei, organise home visits within an informal network of friends in LA. “Partly coming from tradition, from Chinese culture, also from Buddhist teachings, immigrant survival tactics, and collectivist instincts, I think that what my mom does creates a way to embody solidarity.” Alice has described to me the way that her mother makes home visits when people she knows are not well or when she worries about them. She has explained to Alice some formal steps that she takes to observe and respond to needs in a way that is both friendly but also a structured home visit. A home visit includes bringing fresh foods, and other gifts that can help an ailing person. But the interesting thing is that “there’s the ‘home visit’ (拜访) as a colloquial Chinese etiquette thing, and it’s part of what she knows… but I would just note that she’s not doing any leading, devising, or formalising. It doesn’t have to happen at someone’s house or even in-person (lots of WeChat voice messages and gifts at the door during the pandemic instead). It’s really just a deeper way of checking which is this shared instinct that these folks have with each other, including my mother.” (View Highlight)
- For me, being able to experience the separation of giving from receiving (and vice versa) necessitates the understanding that we are a part of a community where there is enough to go around, and we trust that we do and will have what we need. It means that we can give freely without feeling like we are owed something. It also means that we can receive without feeling in debt to someone or something. (View Highlight)
- I think the arts sector as we know it should be abolished. There are more old and sick people than ever. I think that art institutions should turn into creatively run clinics, hospitals, elder care centres, childcare places. I think artists should become caregivers and they should re-imagine what medicine and care can look like outside of capitalism. (View Highlight)
- I think that if we lived in a gift economy, art and creativity would be a part of everyone or anyone’s life. It wouldn’t have to be a job or an identity or a market. I think the art world as we know it produces a lot of narcissistic characteristics in the people who are trapped inside of it (View Highlight)
- When I lived in Canada and began to harvest plants and medicines with badass Indigenous women and Two Spirit people, they laughed at me because I didn’t know how to speak to plants, and I didn’t foresee their needs or desires. You have to put down tobacco before you take something from a plant. You need to talk to it and ask permission, let it know what you are up to, and why you need it. Then you thank it. But no one gave me instructions or forced me, they just showed me by doing it. One day I was harvesting pine needles with a friend so we could make traditional baskets at the women’s prison. I heard laughing when I tried to speak with the trees. My friend had a special Ojibwe name for a laughing tree. The friend noticed that the trees were a weird colour for fall. She got very quiet for the afternoon. (View Highlight)
- If you recognise, as many Indigenous cultures do, that humans are land, then it is impossible to continue life as usual if you notice that your friend or family member, the land, is sick. I am not there yet but I know it is possible because I have seen it. Everything would change if we felt like we WERE the land. If the things that came out of the land were also us, they wouldn’t be resources. They would be friends. (View Highlight)
- My hope is that by creating systems where people can experience solidarity and can see themselves in each other, they will begin to see themselves as more than resources. I think this will make it easier for them to see other people that way too. And in some way I think that is what is necessary to create a web of mutuality and reciprocity. (View Highlight)