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: Kaarina Kailo

The Global Rat Race Revisited --Ecospiritual and Activist Movements Reviving the Gift Imaginary

In my presentation I describe and share some of the visions and practices which might well unite many of the members of the Gift Economy network. I work on several fronts to help reintroduce eco-social sustainable ways and values providing alternatives to the privatization of the Commons and the Darwinistic views on the survival of the fittest (or most greedy). My eco- activism in Finland overflows my national boundaries and identity. In my presentation I describe the gendered differences between the gift or give back economy (most typical for cultural or educational reasons of women and Indigenous communities) and the exchange economy (typically a Western elite male worldview). I describe how ecospiritually oriented feminists approach the dualism between spirituality and secularity ("political action") defying Western dualisms, a split dissociative consciousness and worldview. As a cross-cultural network, we seek to valorise and familiarize ourselves with less known imaginaries and ways of ordering the social and psycho-spiritual cosmos.

For many of us the spiritual manifests itself in practical ways, as well as through the ideals of enhanced wisdom, inner processes of alignment for the deepening of personal and collective peace and balance. What distinguishes cross-cultural feminist views on spirituality and patriarchal ones are differing attitudes towards power, rituals, transcendence/immanence, the here-and-now, non- hierarchical modes of relating to the spiritual experience, and different ways of defining the spirit and the gender of the spiritual expert. In my presentation I wish to discuss the ways in which the spiritual, too, is contingent in its definition and practices on relations of power, masculinist authority and control, to the point that the neo- liberal hording of capital has its parallel in the spiritual monopolies of fundamentalist religious orders.

Biographical Information

Kaarina Kailo is professor of Women's Studies and Multiculturalism at Oulu University, Finland. She is also co-founder of the Finnish Ecopsychology association, coordinator of the Finnish FemAttac and a member of many other peace or feminist organizations. She has published/edited or co-edited books on ecospirituality, ecofeminism, Indigenous women and postcolonialism, violence vs. women and many other feminist issues.

Articles about
the Gift Economy

Radio Interviews

Il Dono/ The Gift: A Feminist Analysis

Gift Economy Website

Conference Endorsers