Gift Economies are one of my favourite anthropological concepts.
Society-wide systems of exchange not based around markets, but instead generalised gifts between hundreds of people
Compiling loose notes and exploring illustrated explanations on it: maggieappleton.com/gift-economy
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Yup! All procreate
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Have you seen anything on gift economies for non tangible goods, like mentorship?
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Has anyone seen a good example of a design / system for mentor-mentee and peer-peer matching of community members? Please share in the replies!
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No specific examples jump to mind, but the general notion of mentorship is certainly a gift economy!
You are gifted guidance, and indirectly gift it back when you’re more experienced. Key element being a finite, bounded community which creates high motivation to gift back
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Also fascinated by the digitalization of the red envelope in China
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Oh yes I *love* this phenomenon of lucky money being ported over to WeChat. So fitting
Lucky money in general is a good example of gift economies within extended families. You don’t specifically track amounts, but it’s implied you’ll reciprocate the gift when relatives get older
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If you are interested in this topic, you should look into the gift giving that occurs in Japan. I don’t have a good article or reference to recommend you to, but I hear it is pretty interesting.
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Oh thanks for the tip off!
I’ve read a bit about Japanese matsutake gifting from Anna Tsing’s wonderful “The Mushroom at the End of the World” book.
If any specific practices or traditions jump to mind let me know - google keywords are usually the most valuable entryways :)
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My phone tells me it is past my bedtime with a monochrome screen mode, but even through it your illustrations are so cozy and warming. Love this!