If you are interested in this sort of thing, and have already read Debt, the First 5000 Years, learning about gift economies is worth it. And Graeber's Toward

If you are interested in this sort of thing, and have already read Debt, the First 5000 Years, learning about gift economies is worth it. And Graeber's Toward An Anthropological Theory of Value The False Coin of Our Own Dreams is worth reading for a mechanical account of how gift economies function, and the status of heirlooms and other valuable objects. Charles Eisenstein can read as cloyingly new-age but if you get past that the message is legit: http://sacred-economics.com/sacred-economics-chapter-18-relearning-gift-culture/ http://sacred-economics.com/sacred-economics-chapter-18-rele...