International Conference on the Gift Economy
Nov 12-14, 2004: Las Vegas, Nevada

A Radically Different World View is Possible

The gift economy inside and outside of Patriarchal Capitalism

Abstract: Paula Gunn Allen

"Grab Day": Gift Giving as a Social Institution

With Laguna and other Pueblos of the Southwest-US as its focus, this talk will consider the many ways in which American Indian Nations have incorporated "gift giving" into its fundamental social system. This institution has survived the vicissitudes of euro-domination, showing it, like indigenous sustainable economies themselves when deeply tied to spirit-connected experience of reality, to be strong indeed.


Biographical Information:

Paula Gunn Allen b. 1939. Laguna/Metis. Ph.D. Professor Emerita, UCLA. Her anthologies of critical studies and American Indian fiction include Studies in American Indian Literature (1983), Spider Woman's Granddaughters: Traditional Tales and Contemporary Writing by American Indian Women (1989), and Voice of the Turtle: American Indian Literature, two collections of her essays, The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions (1986), and Off the Reservation: Reflections on Boundary-Busting, Border-Crossing, Loose Canons (1998), several poetry books, including Coyote's Daylight Trip (1976), A Cannon Between My Knees (1984), Wyrds, (1986), Skins and Bones (1990), and most recently Life Is A Fatal Disease (1998); a novel, The Woman Who Owned the Shadows (1982). Gunn Allen whose poetry, fiction and essays appear in numerous books and periodicals, has won a number of awards for writing and scholarship, including the Hubbell Medal for Lifetime Achievement, American Literature Division, The Modern Language Association of America, (2000) and Native Writer's Circle Lifetime Achievement Award (2001). Her most recent book, Pocahontas: Medicine Woman, Spy, Entrepreneur, Diplomat was released by Harper San Francisco in October 2003.

Articles about
the Gift Economy

Radio Interviews

Il Dono/ The Gift: A Feminist Analysis

Gift Economy Website

Conference Endorsers