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
Conversation
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