Re: <nettime> The New Culture? The New Economy!

[Newmedia@aol.com]

Gift-thinkers:

Sorry, but I'm not all that familiar with the literature . . . do the
writers on the topic of "gifts" dwell much on the actual "political
economy" which generates these "gifts"? 

In particular, do they focus on these "gifts" as the spoils of war
(distribution of the booty and the loot from the vanquished) and the
tribal structures (and associated hierarchies) which are supported by the
distribution of "gifts"? 

And, has anyone who has studied "gifts" dealt with the reasons why late
20th century inhabitants might be interested in such tribal arrangements
-- or rather the epiphenomenon of these tribal systems -- which would seem
to come from such vastly different times? 

Why do "tribalisms" seem comfortable to modern people who won't survive
for ten minutes in an authentically tribal "environment" and is it proper
to consider the present "electric media environment" some sort of a weird
"retrieval" mechanism recovering a distant tribal past?  Is television
some sort of bizarre time machine? 

Best,

Mark Stahlman
New York City




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