The Serviceberry: An Economy of Gifts and Abundance

I received this as a gift - and I will pass it on as a gift.

I thought this was going to be a book about ecology, botany, looking at the relationship between plants and people, but it's a little different than I expected. It's about Ecological Economics; the idea of abundance and reciprocity in the natural world (given in the title) and how we can extend this idea of a 'gift giving' economy as opposed to our current market-driven commodity based economy. Or more precisely, how can we can encourage and enhance gift giving economies within the larger system in which we live, copying the botanical serviceberry in its giving in times of abundance?

This was originally published as an essay, and has been extended to a small book; Kimmerer's writing is hopeful and poignant. It's not difficult to read (despite being about economics!), and shows there is already some movement towards biomimicry in modern economics taught at universities. That's a start.

I don't share the optimism that our world can return to an indigenous-based gift-giving economy entirely, but the idea that these economies can exist in tandem is an interesting and hopeful one.

Pass it on.