[Nettime-bold] 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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