Books

English

Gift in the Heart of Language The Gift in the Heart of Language: The Maternal Source of Meaning by Genevieve Vaughan

The author offers a paradigm-shifting view of the structure of material and verbal communication, based on the mother-child experience and confirmed by recent research in infant psychology. This view justifies a relational epistemology that informs the material gift economy, as well as the structure of language itself. Provisioning economies give value to the receivers, and the circulation of gifts consolidates community. Understanding language as verbal gifting unites other orientations with reason, to liberate us from biopathic, patriarchal conceptions of humanity. Sketched against this background, Vaughan introduces a conception of monetized exchange as a gift-denying and expropriating psychological mechanism, which is an unintended collective by product of verbal communication.

for-giving-cover ForGiving: A Feminist Criticism of Exchange by Genevieve Vaughan
homo_small Homo Donans In this book Genevieve weaves together some of her newest articles exploring the possibility that gift giving is a fundamental interpretative key for the understanding of language and life, a key which has been cancelled by the ideology and practise of patriarchal capitalism. The restoration of gift giving to a central place in our attention, gives us a way to reconceptualize human beings as Homo Donans, not just Homo Sapiens, or worse, Homo Economicus.
thegift_sml The Gift / Il Dono A collection of essays about the gift economy by feminist scholars and activists. Edited by Genevieve Vaughan. Published in Italy by Athanor.
womanand_giftcover Women and the Gift Economy Edited by Genevieve Vaughan

Español – Italiano – Deutsch

paradonar_cover_medium Para-donar: Una crítica feminista del intercambio por Genevieve Vaughan
forgiving_german_italiancover Per-Donare – Una critica femminista dello scambio di Genevieve Vaughan
forgiving_german_cover Für das Geben – Eine feministische Kritik des Austausches Genevieve Vaughan

Children’s Books

mothernatures_small Mother Nature’s Children


Los Niños de la Madre Naturaleza
A children’s book about the Gift Economy. Also available in Spanish.
freenotfree1 Free

Not Free
The adventures of Trilly the Canary teach the gift economy to children. Illustrations by Liliana Wilson.
land_cover_small Ours Together Land Illustrations by Liliana Wilson.