A Radically Different World View is Possible: The Gift Economy

What: A Radically Different World View is Possible: The Gift Economy Inside and Outside Patriarchal Capitalism
Who: Internationally Known Feminist Activists
When: November 12-14, Opening Friday 12th at 4:00 pm.
Where: Clark County Library, Las Vegas, Nevada
Contact: 512.444.1672

For more information and registration visit http://www.gifteconomyconference.com


This dynamic and thought provoking conference will be held right after one of the most dramatic elections in this country's recent history, an election in which citizens have been asked to choose between one extremely patriarchal and one somewhat less patriarchal candidate. The conference will discuss an alternative to patriarchy, with perspectives presented by some of the foremost leaders and thinkers in the International Women's Movement.Giving attention and value to the logic of gift giving as embodied in the practice of mothers, indigenous peoples, immigrants, free soft ware providers, artists, activists, volunteers and social experimenters, reveals a widespread hidden gift economy that coexists with the market. . A gift economy can be seen as an alternative to Patriarchal Capitalism, an alternatve that continues to exist in spite of the misogyny, racism, classism and greed that motivate the present system. Affirming the worldview of the gift economy can provide the values and the link among movements that can help us create a peaceful and abundant world. This alternative vision is necessary at this time of worldwide violence caused by clashes between market-based patriarchies.

Speakers and titles

Heide Gottner Abendroth (Germany)
The Relationship between Modern Matriarchal Studies and the Gift Paradigm

Rabia Abdelkarim (Algeria/Senegal)
Solidarity Economics

Yvette Abrahams (South Africa)
The Social Structure of the Historical Khoekhoe as a Model for a Gift Economy

Paula Gunn Allen (USA)
"Grab Day": Gift Giving as a Social Institution

Andrea Alvarado (Costa Rica)
The Gift Giving Philosophy of Open Source Technology

Peggy Antrobus (Barbados)
The Gift and Caribbean Economies

Jeanette Armstrong (Canada)
Whole Family Systems in Living Community on the Land and Sustainable Living

Madu Auditore (Ivroy Coast/Italy/Australia)
For the Children of the World

Chato Basa (Philippines/Italy)
Immigration in Europe- the Care Chain

Rokeya Begum (Bangladesh)
Gift giving and Women in Bangladesh

Marta Benavides (El Salvador)
Activism and the Gift Economy in El Salvador

Carol Brouillet (USA)
Facing the shadow of 9/11

Dotti Chamblin (USA)
Gift Giving and the Movement Against Domestic Violence

Linda Christiansen-Ruffman (USA/Canada)
Women's Gifting Relations and Community Work: Toward a New Public Policy Framework
and a New Knowledge Paradigm

Rauna Kuokkanen (Finland/Canada)
Enabling the Gift Logic of Indigenous Philosophies

Leslene Della Madre (USA)
Approaching Death from the View of Gift-giving

Brackin Firecracker (USA)
Activism:The Hopeful Gift of a Better World

Tracy Gary (USA)
Women's Funding Partnerships

Debra Harry (USA)
Indigenous Peoples and Biocolonialism: Conflicting Sovereignties and
Worldviews

Mechthild Hart (Germany/USA)
The Bodiless Spirit of Patriarchal Capitalism, Real Bodies, and Corporeal Feminist Resistance

Ana Isla (Peru/Canada)
Sustainable Development and Poverty Creation

Maria Jimenez (Mexico/USA)
Gift giving across Borders

Kaarina Kailo (Finland)
The Global Rat Race Revisited; Ecospiritual and Activist Movements Reviving the Gift Imaginary

Corinne Kumar (India)
Women's Knowledges

Paola Melchiori (Italy)
Epistemology and the Gift

Angela Miles (Canada)
Women's Giving: A new Frame for Feminist Policy Demands

Sizani Ngubane (South Africa)
Rural Women in South Africa Caring for Children with AIDS

Vicki Noble (USA)
She Gives the Gift of Her Body

Patricia Pearlman (USA)
The Goddess Temple of Sekhmet as a Gift Economy Project

Susan Petrilli (Australia/ITALY)
Lady Welby: Semiotics and Mothersense

Erella Shadmi (Israel)
Can I Forgive Men (or Any Other Hegemony?)

Sylvia Shihadeh (Palestine/USA)
The Gift of the Peace Movement in the Palestinian/Israeli Conflict

Elisabet Sahtouris (USA)
Crisis as Opportunity: The Biology of Globalization

Mililani Trask (Hawaii)
Indigenous Women and the Gift Economy

Genevieve Vaughan (USA/Italy)
Heterosexual Economics: Genders as Economic Categories

Claudia Von Werlhof (Austria)
Capitalist Patriarchy and the Struggle for a Deep Alternative

Frieda Werden (USA/Canada)
The Gift of Community Radio

Organized and sponsored by The Center for the Study of the Gift Economy, Austin, Texas. Endorsed by Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Indigenous Women's Network, Indigenous People's Council on Biocolonialism, Ms. Magazine, Yes Magazine, Fierce Magazine, Sage Woman Magazine, Feminist International Radio Endeavor, Women's International News Gathering Service, Reformed Church of the Goddess International, and Awakened Woman. The conference will be held in Las Vegas because of the possibility of cheap flights and because of the need to be healing and constructive in the midst of chaos.

A second conference, Matriarchies: Societies of Peace will be held in Austin, Texas, November 2005 under the direction of Heide Gottner-Abendroth