This deck is based on the opening chapter of "The Gift: Creativity & the Artist in the Modern World" by Lewis Hyde

Author Lewis Hyde

Early in the book, Hyde introduces us to the Kula, a ceremonial, never-ending gift exchange practiced by the people of the Massim archipelago off New Guinea. There are two kinds of gifts, armshells (a shell ring worn about the wrist) and shell necklaces.

These gifts are exchanged around the archipelago in a circular motion; one going clockwise and the other counterclockwise. Anyone receiving one gift is expected to reciprocate with the equivalent value of the other kind within no more than a year. In this way, the gifts are continually in motion, travelling from island to island in a cycle that stretches from two to ten years for any one gift before it returns to its originator.

Hyde comments, “…at the level of each man there will be the sense of imbalance, of shifting weight, that always marks a gift exchange.”

Take note of that: giving a gift creates a (temporary) imbalance. The giver is without something, and the recipient has acquired a social obligation (to reciprocate and to move the gift along).

So the important thing is the motion, and the motion is fueled by temporary loss of equilibrium.

A human preparing to run actually leans forward, intentionally (though not consciously) throwing off his balance, which is corrected by putting the first foot forward–as step. The runner in motion is someone continually falling forward. The lean is the loss of equilibrium; the step is the “gift” that restores it.

In this way circular giving keeps a flow of new life traveling through the tribe, even among widely scattered islands in an archipelago.

Kula is non-linear and therefore not really reciprocal. It requires at least three parties (in reality, of course, many more are involved), and the same gift doesn’t immediately return to the giver.

Hyde points out that most folk tales involving gifts have at least three people in them, establishing the minimum for a circle. The circle helps perpetuate dis-equilibrium and motion. No one ever receives the same gift from the same person.

I may give arm shells to my neighbor to the west, but I will never get arm shells back from him. I have to give “blindly” and have “blind gratitude” as well. The gift “goes around a corner” as it were, before it comes back, and I usually will be unaware of all the connections it went through before it does return.

When a gift has passed out of sight, it can’t be manipulated by the giver.

So the continual cycle of Kula giving creates a circulatory system that reinforces and strengthens tribal bonds. Keeping Kula means traveling to adjacent islands in order for the exchange to take place. preventing isolationism. The times of Kula ceremonies are times of exchanging much more than just the physical gifts: news, information, etc. are exchanged as well.

When experts do Kula, they keep the world moving and build tribes.

Kula is the recognition that what we have is a gift.

And by sharing the Kula of your expertise, you build a tribe that you are a part of. Far off peoples will benefit from you around the blind corner of the giving, and the whole tribe gets better because of it. And that means you get better too, for you are part of the tribe.

Expertise passed on becomes a seed leading to new and expanded knowledge, benefiting all.

The next three benefits can't be manufactured or manipulated by the giver, but to those who regularly and freely give, they will inevitably come.

The first is the esteem or respect of those associated with the giver.

A generous sharer of expertise will eventually attract a following who are willing and happy to recommend them and lend support when needed.

Authority is the right to lead. It is the establishment of a voice worth being heard. The giver of expertise earns and establishes authority.

(For a fuller treatment of this topic, see my post at http://bit.ly/XjbFpG)