Gift value grows through circulation whereas property value grows by exclusion

Evidence

That is the fundamental nature of gifts: they move, and their value increases with their passage. The fields made a gift of berries to us and we made a gift of them to our father. The more something is shared, the greater its value becomes. This is hard to grasp for societies steeped in notions of private property, where others are, by definition, excluded from sharing. Practices such as posting land against trespass, for example, are expected and accepted in a property economy but are unacceptable in an economy where land is seen as a gift to all. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 102

Categorization

• DEFINE: Core inverting principle of gift economy vs. private property, a hinge concept for Eco-Justice and Environmental Law courses.
• XREF: Trespass-posting contrast widens ch4’s land-as-gift vs. land-as-property opposition and feeding land-rights legal critique. — connects to: Commodity exchange ends obligation while gift exchange creates it — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 97; Gifts create feeling-bonds that commodities do not — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 98; Giving something away can make it grow rather than diminish — , A Year of World Stories, 11790 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Gifts stay alive only by moving onward through reciprocity #corroborates (0.95) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 356
• Giving something away can make it grow rather than diminish #exemplifies (0.92) — , A Year of World Stories, 11790
• Individual gifts find fuller expression only when nurtured in relationship #expands (0.85) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 490
• Gifts returned to the land come back as unexpected reciprocal gifts #exemplifies (0.80) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 979
• Gifts create feeling-bonds that commodities do not #expands (0.78) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 98