In Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer explores the concept of the gift economy, which is central to many Indigenous philosophies and contrasts with capitalist economic models based on commodity exchange. The gift economy is rooted in principles of reciprocity, gratitude, and abundance.
Kimmerer provides examples from the natural world to illustrate the gift economy at work. She describes how plants "gift" us with sustenance, materials, and medicines without expecting anything in return. The Earth constantly gives from its renewable abundance. Similarly, when a fertile maple tree produces more seeds than it needs, it is giving the surplus away as gifts.
Kimmerer also gives examples from Indigenous practices like the Honoring the Truth principles of the Potawatomi people, which include sharing resources, avoiding wastefulness, and giving away what you don't need. The ceremony of the Giveaway is a profound expression of the gift economy, where valuable items are disbursed to honor people rather than accumulated for status.
The gift economy is about much more than material exchange - it creates relationships of trust, reciprocity and mutual responsibility between people and with the natural world. Kimmerer argues that by giving and receiving with a mindset of gratitude rather than ego, we can begin to restore balance and heal ourselves and the Earth.
In contrast to capitalism's ethos of scarcity and ownership, the gift economy operates from a place of abundance and sharing. Kimmerer calls upon us to participate in this ancient covenant of reciprocity as a way to mend our broken relationship with the natural world.
The basic elements of the gift economy can be summarized in about four key points, shown below.
Balance by circulation: Gifts circulate instead of accumulating
Mothering and need-orientation: Gifts flow towards the greatest need
Abundance and ego-limitation: Over time, giving and receiving must be in balance
Interconnectedness and diversity: The source of the gift should be acknowledged
“It’s funny how the nature of an object—let’s say a strawberry or a pair of socks—is so changed by the way it has come into your hands, as a gift or as a commodity. The pair of wool socks that I buy at the store, red and gray striped, are warm and cozy. I might feel grateful for the sheep that made the wool and the worker who ran the knitting machine. I hope so. But I have no inherent obligation to those socks as a commodity, as private property. There is no bond beyond the politely exchanged ‘thank yous’ with the clerk. I have paid for them and our reciprocity ended the minute I handed her the money. The exchange ends once parity has been established, an equal exchange. They become my property. I don’t write a thank-you note to JCPenney. But what if those very same socks, red and gray striped, were knitted by my grandmother and given to me as a gift? That changes everything. A gift creates ongoing relationship. I will write a thank-you note. I will take good care of them and if I am a very gracious grandchild I'll wear them when she visits even if I don’t like them. When it’s her birthday, I will surely make her a gift in return. As the scholar and writer Lewis Hyde notes, ‘It is the cardinal difference between gift and commodity exchange that a gift establishes a feeling-bond between two people.’”
“We are showered every day with gifts, but they are not meant for us to keep. Their life is in their movement, the inhale and the exhale of our shared breath. Our work and our joy is to pass along the gift and to trust that what we put into the universe will always come back.”
“Recognizing abundance rather than scarcity undermines an economy that thrives by creating unmet desires. Gratitude cultivates an ethic of fullness, but the economy needs emptiness.”
The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer, Emergence Magazine: As Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy. How, she asks, can we learn from Indigenous wisdom and ecological systems to reimagine currencies of exchange?
The “Honorable Harvest”: Lessons From an Indigenous Tradition of Giving Thanks by Robin Wall Kimmerer: In this season of harvest, our baskets are full, rounded with fragrant apples and heaped with winter squash. So too are the steel shopping carts that clatter across the parking lot, plastic bags whipping in the wind. How do we even name such abundance? Are these commodities? Natural resources? Ecosystem services? In the indigenous worldview, we call them gifts.
A Gift Economy: Brush Brook Community Farm on 'Across The Fence': The Brush Brook Community Farm in Huntington, VT established a gift economy, giving out their grown produce to the broader Vermont community for free, creating a broad network of friends who often gave gifts in return in order to keep them afloat.
Little Free Everything by Slingshot Collective: About Free Little Libraries and their connection to the gift economy.
Consider creating your own Little Free Library to share with your neighbors. The Little Free Libraries organization sells prefabricated Little Free Libraries kits so you can easily build one yourself, or you can build one using repurposed materials!
Recognize objects in the material world as gifts and make an effort to learn where they come from. For example, where does my daily coffee come from? What about the computer I am using to read this post?
Write a thank you note to a friend to express gratitude for a gift or favor they have given you (i.e. your roommate who cooked for you, a family member who sent you cookies, a friend who helped you finish your math homework, etc.)
Share a resource with your neighbors or friends.
Start to learn some of the names of plants and animals around you (seek by iNaturalist is a great app for identifying plants)
Think deeply about your relationship to gifts and reciprocity. What defines a gift to you? What is reciprocity? How do you give and receive in your life?
Reciprocity refers to the belief that humans have a responsibility to give back to the natural world in exchange for the gifts we receive from it. Kimmerer emphasizes that the Earth provides us with everything we need to survive, and we must reciprocate by caring for and protecting the land, plants, and animals around us. By embracing the principle of reciprocity, we can cultivate a deeper appreciation for the natural world and our place within it. This mindset can help us live more sustainable and fulfilling lives while also contributing to the health and well-being of the Earth.
“One of our responsibilities as human people is to find ways to enter into reciprocity with the more-than-human world. We can do it through gratitude, through ceremony, through land-stewardship, science, art, and in everyday acts of practical reverence.”
“Yet while city folks may be separated from the sources of what they consume, they can exercise reciprocity through how they spend their money.”
“All we need as students in mindfulness. Paying attention is a form of reciprocity with the living world, receiving the gifts with open eyes and open heart.”
3 sisters garden & reciprocity https://www.nativeseeds.org/blogs/blog-news/how-to-grow-a-three-sisters-garden
Practice gratitude: Kimmerer encourages us to express gratitude for the gifts we receive from the Earth, such as food, water, and shelter. This can be done through simple rituals or prayers such as giving thanks before eating or writing a love letter to the Earth.
Respect and protect nature: We can show our respect for the natural world by minimizing our environmental impact, reducing waste, and actively participating in conservation efforts.
Cultivate a mindset of abundance and sharing: Instead of hoarding resources, we can adopt a mindset of abundance and share what we have with others, just as the Earth shares its bounty with us.
Engage in reciprocal relationships: Kimmerer suggests that we should strive to establish reciprocal relationships with other people, as well as with the natural world. This means being willing to give and receive in a balanced way.
Learn from Indigenous wisdom: Kimmerer draws heavily from Indigenous knowledge systems, which often emphasize the importance of reciprocity and living in harmony with nature. We can seek out opportunities to learn from Indigenous communities and incorporate their teachings into our lives.
In Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin draws deeply from Indigenous knowledge systems, particularly those of her Potawatomi heritage, to articulate an ethic of reciprocity and respect towards the natural world. The scholarship highlighted in this section resonates with Kimmerer's work by centering and legitimizing Indigenous philosophies that have long been marginalized by Western colonial traditions. Decolonial scholars call to challenge and “unsettle” Eurocentric foundations of academic research. Examining Indigenous concepts of body/territory and storytelling aligns with Kimmer’s emphasis on fostering a sacred relationship and kinship with land and nonhuman beings. Feminist political ecology provides a lens to understand Indigenous women’s essential roles as knowledge holders, uplifting perspectives. Ultimately, this radical scholarship supports many of the messages throughout Braiding Sweetgrass.
More Indigenous Perspectives
Decolonizing Methodologies
Feminist Political Ecology
Practicing Feminist Political Ecologies: Moving Beyond the ‘Green Economy’
Storying climate knowledge: notes on experimental political ecology
Body Territory
Individual Actions
Kimmerer discusses the importance of developing a relationship to your place and to the land – both for your well-being, as a key component to environmental sustainability, and as an avenue toward reciprocity and gratitude for the earth. In an article on ‘the myth of human exceptionalism’, Kimmerer states, “When we deny kinship with other species, we become blind to the world as a gift. When we choose human exceptionalism, we turn our backs on the reciprocal joys of loving kinship. Instead, we endure the burden of estrangement from the ones who give us everything we need. The price of this estrangement seeps its way into our behaviors—overconsumption, self-absorption, obsession with power and violence—filling the space where relationship might be.” Every time Kimmerer moves to a new place, she tries to get to know the animals and plants around her. She learns their names or comes up with her own names that reflect her relationship with them. She also uses her language to reflect her connection and kinship with other species. Instead of using ‘it’ when describing a plant or animal, she said ‘she,’ ‘him,’ or ‘them.’
“Names are the way we humans build relationship, not only with each other but with the living world. I’m trying to imagine what it would be like going through life not knowing the names of the plants and animals around you ... Philosophers call this state of isolation and disconnection ‘species loneliness’ -- a deep, unnamed sadness stemming from estrangement from the rest of Creation, from the loss of relationship.”
“We’re not in control. What we are in control of is our relationship to the earth.”
Eat locally and in season to connect with the land around you
Plant a garden
Getting to know the species around you, give them names
Practice the grammar of animacy and share it with others
Spend quiet, quality time in nature
Being observant and curious of nature
Explore, question, and develop your own relationship with the land through reflection, art, writing, and conversation
Kimmerer encourages everyone to practice ceremony as a way to deepen their relationship with and gratitude toward the earth. She reminds non-Indigenous people that this does not mean ‘adopting’ specific Indigenous ceremonies and languages, as this could result in cultural appropriation, but it instead means creating your own. In an interview, she states, “To me, the power comes not from adopting, but from creating.” She encouraged non-Indigenous members of the audience to create an authentic relationship with the earth on their own. “Ceremony focuses attention so that attention becomes intention,” she says. Standing together, with your community, to profess something holds you accountable. She states that ceremony has dissolved in the ‘dominant society,’ for multiple reasons including the frentic pace of life, dissolution of community, and sense that ceremony is an artifact of organized religion forced on participants rather than a celebration joyfully chosen. Even the ceremonies that do persist (birthdays, weddings, funerals, graduations) focus only on us, not nature.
“That, I think, is the power of ceremony: it marries the mundane to the sacred. The water turns to wine, the coffee to a prayer. The material and the spiritual mingle like grounds mingled with humus, transformed like steam rising from a mug into the morning mist. What else can you offer the earth, which has everything? What else can you give but something of yourself? A homemade ceremony, a ceremony that makes a home.”
“To have agency in the world, ceremonies, should be reciprocal cocreations, organic in nature, in which the community creates ceremony and the ceremony creates communities. They should not be cultural appropriations of Native peoples.”
“There are towns I know that hold apple festivals and Moose Mania, but despite the wonderful food, they tend toward the commercial. Educational events like wildflower weekends and Christmas bird counts are all steps in the right direction, but they lack an active, reciprocal relationship with the more-than-human world. I want to stand by the river in my finest dress. I want to sing, strong and hard, and stomp my feet with a hundred others so that the waters hum with our happiness. I want to dance for the renewal of the world.”