"Oh this? It was a gift from my friend Mindy!"
"I love your watch, where did you get it?"
"Oh this? Target."
We've all been asked this question or a question similar to it. Which one has more meaning to you? If you said the second one I would have to question your pattern of thinking. Receiving a gift from a friend, family member, significant other, or even a secret admirer has a lot of meaning to you and the person doing the giving. It always makes me smile to see a close friend wearing the shirt I bought them or my dad listening to the CD I gave him for fathers day. Giving and recieving gifts is an american custom. People do it everyday. But did you realize many of us give gifts everyday without wanting anything in return? This is known as gift economy.
According to Wikipedia.org, a gift economy is defined as, "an economic system in which goods and services are given without any expilict agreement for imediate or future Quid pro quo (something for something)". I will use an example referring to something I have done in my life. A few years ago a close friend to my community passed away from heart failure at only 17 years old. My town was mess, but immediately started giving to his family by making them dinner, giving them cards, and helping them out with whatever they needed. Chris loved playing tennis, it was his passion and his life. Following his death my tennis coach approached both the boys' and girls' tennis teams and had an idea of some sort of tennis related dedication to him. Within a few weeks we all pulled together the school district and students to help with our project. We had been talking about putting in tennis courts behind our school for years and this time seemed better then any. Yet we were still a few hundred thousand dollars short. We had come up with an idea of an adult casino night at the school to raise money. The teams served at the fuction and the parents gambled. We ended up making quite a bit, but still needed more. It almost felt like we were a running business. We had a group taking care of the budget, a group creating ideas, another group talking with the construction company and it all seemed to be coming together. With in months we had familys of the community donating hundreds to thousands of dollars. About less then 2 years later, the courts were built with his name arched across the top. At the opening ceremony his parents stood up to thank everyone for what they did and couldnt find the way to give something back in return. In the back of all of our minds we knew we wanted nothing. Because when people asked his family "how did you get courts dedicated to you" we knew they would be saying "it was a gift from the school district and the kids" and they would smile and know that it meant more to them than anything.
Now this example of gift economy might be a different approach then what everyone else was thinking. But the second I read the definition I knew this was one of the most important things I gave, knowing I wanted nothing in return. There are many other situations that occur that can be considered gift economy. Take something simple that you probably do everyday (or so I hope), holding a door for someone when walking in or out of the union. You dont expect them to give you a dollar everytime you are generous. What about helping a friend with homework? Or even covering someones shift at work.
There is a difference between giving a gift of gradiuted from giving a gift of obligation. A gift of obligation would not be considered a gift economy because you feel the need to give the gift because a person has already given you something and you are trying to return the favor. When I think of gift economy I think of the Liberity commericals.
1 comment:
Isn't a gift economy based on getting something in return? The definition says its not about getting something directly in return (like money), but it does imply that there is an implicit expectation of reciprocation. Like in the video on your blog- the people were doing good deeds to help others without demanding anything of them, but it did lead to them doing good deeds for other people. Those follow up good deeds could be considered reciprocation because the commercial implies that most of those people would not have done those good deeds without having a good deed done for them first.
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