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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Lots to think about here -- it takes a while to digest it all.
Essential to the understanding of the gift economy at the heart of any habit of grace, graciousness, or gratitude. Essential as an antidode to the all-consuming market economy.
informative
reflective
slow-paced
The first half was great, I really loved the analysis of popular folklore. However, for me, as soon as Walt Whitman and Ezra Pound were introduced it became really hard to understand and get through. If I read it again, I might just pick chapters that I'm interested in.
DFW sent me here and I bought the book 10+ years ago and read pages here and there and everywhere.
Meandered a bit in the middle, but ultimately a very important read that solidified how I feel about some of the inspirations I've been given.
Book in two parts; first part is an essay/historical treaty on the clash between gifts and market forces; "It has been the implication of much of this book that there is an irreconcilable conflict between gift exchange and the market" (p276).
Second part is on artists, with case studies of Walt Whitman and Ezra Pound. I skipped that part. Previous quote continues:"...the artist in the modern wor,d must suffer a constant tension between the gift sphere to which his work pertains and the market society which is his context." (P276).
The first part is anthropological. I especially liked the chapter on usury (in the old day interest did not exist and everything was usury).
P101 on the Uduk (a tribe in Ethiopia): they are matrilineal, not the female is "given away" in marriage. Marriage for the Uduk has a few well-defined but dhort-term obligations. Marriages typically last only 3-4 years. To counter the many break-ups, the Ethipian government instituted a system of bride-wealth payment. The main Uduk response? Refusal to pay bridewealth; "Are we to sell our girl as if she were goat or something?"
P24 English word for beggar comes fromthe Berghards, 13th century brotherhood from Flanders.
P131 "Gift increases inside the circle; capital bears interest at the boundary". Form the chapter on usury. Because the gift economy does not scale to larger groups, Luther and others had to find a compromise.
P287-288 Some categories of human enterprise are not well organized or supported by market forces (family life, religious life, public service, artistic practice). Any community that values these things will find non-market ways to organize them. It will develop gift-exchange intstitutions dedicated to their support.
P293 This (current) period of market triumphalism has seen a succesful move to commercialize a long list of things once thought to have no price, and to enclose common holding, both natural and cultural, that we used to assume no one was allowed to take private.
Second part is on artists, with case studies of Walt Whitman and Ezra Pound. I skipped that part. Previous quote continues:"...the artist in the modern wor,d must suffer a constant tension between the gift sphere to which his work pertains and the market society which is his context." (P276).
The first part is anthropological. I especially liked the chapter on usury (in the old day interest did not exist and everything was usury).
P101 on the Uduk (a tribe in Ethiopia): they are matrilineal, not the female is "given away" in marriage. Marriage for the Uduk has a few well-defined but dhort-term obligations. Marriages typically last only 3-4 years. To counter the many break-ups, the Ethipian government instituted a system of bride-wealth payment. The main Uduk response? Refusal to pay bridewealth; "Are we to sell our girl as if she were goat or something?"
P24 English word for beggar comes fromthe Berghards, 13th century brotherhood from Flanders.
P131 "Gift increases inside the circle; capital bears interest at the boundary". Form the chapter on usury. Because the gift economy does not scale to larger groups, Luther and others had to find a compromise.
P287-288 Some categories of human enterprise are not well organized or supported by market forces (family life, religious life, public service, artistic practice). Any community that values these things will find non-market ways to organize them. It will develop gift-exchange intstitutions dedicated to their support.
P293 This (current) period of market triumphalism has seen a succesful move to commercialize a long list of things once thought to have no price, and to enclose common holding, both natural and cultural, that we used to assume no one was allowed to take private.
reflective
slow-paced
Slow read and seemed dated to me.
I really really liked this book. My sweetheart who is an artist got me to read it. It has given me a whole knew way to think about and talk about economics. I think what I most like about this book, and generally the Mausian ideas about gift giving cultures is that it gives me a way to talk about what really sucks about capitalism that is not confrontational and is accessible to people who don't usual talk about politics.