Dec 20, 2008
The first salmon ceremony establishes a gift relationship with nature, a formal give-and-take that acknowledges our participation in, and dependence upon, natural increase. And where we have established such a relationship, we tend to respond to nature as a part of ourselves, not a stranger or alien available for exploitation. Gift exchange brings with it, therefore, a built-in check upon the destruction of its objects; with it we will not destroy nature’s renewable wealth except where we also consciously destroy ourselves…Gift exchange is the commerce of choice.
The Gift by Lewis Hyde
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