Book Review: The Serviceberry

[osprey_archer]

Recently I finished Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass, and have not yet been able to write about it, because I need time to digest it. But Kimmerer recently released a shorter companion book, The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, which is a distillation of certain ideas from Braiding Sweetgrass, and also easier to digest simply by virtue of being much shorter.

The Serviceberry’s basic idea is this: our current extractive industrial economies are rattling down the road straight toward ecological catastrophe. What other economic models could we follow instead?

And as a model, Kimmerer offers the serviceberry itself. As she notes, Western economics is founded on the idea of scarcity. But while scarcity is a condition that occurs in nature, it’s not a constant. In the natural world, abundance is just as common as scarcity. A serviceberry tree after a rainy spring has more than enough berries for birds and squirrels and humans.

Serviceberries are thus one model of a gift economy. They invite humans to understand “natural resources” not as a source to be exploited but as a gift from the earth, which like all gifts creates a reciprocal relationship between the giver and the receiver. We take, but also give. (In the case of the serviceberries, by spreading the seeds.)

And, furthermore, Kimmerer suggests, modern society could use traditional gift economies as a model for one possible way forward out of our current economic race toward climate catastrophe. There are already small-scale attempts in Little Free Libraries and free farm stands and Freecycle and the Buy Nothing movement, everything from the traditional mutual aid in churches to the new forms of digital gift economy exemplified in, for instance, fandom.

This last is not something Kimmerer discusses, but fandom is my own most extensive experience with a gift economy, where people write fic or draw fanart and post it with no expectation of direct payment behind perhaps a few comments - but also the more diffuse payment of helping create an environment where other people also post their fan creations for everyone to enjoy.

Now, at this point in my life, I’ve mostly moved over to selling stories for regular old money, because we have not (yet) learned how to leverage the gift economy so that it can pay for, let’s say, a two-month road trip. But, on the other hand, so many of the friends that I stayed with on that road trip were people I met through fandom, or through book reviews or nature photos on Dreamwidth or Livejournal. The road trip would not have been possible without the money, but it also would not have been possible without the web of relationships created by the gift economy.

***

While I was reading The Serviceberry, I discovered a couple of serviceberry trees on a street near my house, in a location that made it clear they had been planted by the city. Visions of serviceberry muffins dancing in my head, I went out to pick some berries - keeping a weather eye on the road, as picking berries from a public tree felt vaguely illicit.

But berry-picking is an absorbing occupation, and I didn’t notice the man walking his dog until he was almost upon me. “What are you doing?” he asked, curious, with some slight accent I didn’t recognize.

“Picking serviceberries,” I explained. “Would you like to try one?”

He would and he did. “It’s good,” he said, a little surprised. “Better than blueberries.”

And we said good evening, and I went back to picking serviceberries as he and his dog walked on.

Comments

[asakiyume]

Ahhh, the encounter at the end! How beautiful!

Picking berries is one of my most treasured memories from childhood. I'd ride my bike to all the "waste places" where black raspberries grew and just pick and pick.

And your observation about your road trips is a great way of looking at it that I hadn't thought of. I've had a ... not quite cynical, but maybe resigned ? attitude toward the relation of the gift economy and daily life as we're forced to live it--namely, as you say, that plain old money is very necessary. But you're so right about your trips--and I've experienced the same thing--yes, the money is necessary, but so are the relationships. Discounting that is like discounting the real economic contribution of, for example, women's unpaid caregiving or household upkeep activity. Thanks for this!

Also, I had no idea that The Serviceberry was much shorter than Braiding Sweetgrass! I ought to try it, because while I love [much of] Braiding Sweetgrass when I actually get myself reading it, I just am always daunted in tackling it. I should maybe start with The Serviceberry and work backward.

[osprey_archer]

When I was very small, we went on vacation at Life of Riley, where there were tons of wild blueberry bushes. I loved to pick blueberries, possibly in part because this is one of the few areas of life where being a tiny person with tiny hands is a big asset. But also because wild blueberries and delicious.

I think it can be difficult to imagine what it would look like to live in a gift economy - and is that actually our goal? Is that compatible with a large-scale industrial society? (But, also, is a large-scale industrial society compatible with continued life on earth...)

But, leaving all those big questions aside for the moment, noticing the gift economy aspects in our own lives can make the concept feel much more real/livable, whereas in the abstract I think it's easy to feel cynical/resigned about the possibility that we could do this in the era of hypercapitalism. I definitely had to spend some time thinking about how it fit in my own life to see, oh, actually I've experienced this.

And for me, there's also some feeling that cash is fluid/flexible, you can get whatever you want as long as you have the cash, whereas the idea of a gift economy can feel constraining - you're stuck with whatever someone else feels like giving you?? But that's not actually what the lived experience feels like, most of the time, in part because most gift-givers want to give you a gift you do, in fact, desire. You're not gonna eat the berries if they're not delicious.

Yes, The Serviceberry is super short! It's like a little hors d'oeuvre to Braiding Sweetgrass's five course meal (with paired drinks and a dessert). Definitely I think it would work well to start with The Serviceberry and work backward.

[rachelmanija]

It's a tiny, beautiful book. You could read it in an hour.

I have never had a serviceberry. I'd love to try one.

I've been engaged in more gift and barter economics since moving to Crestline than I've ever done outside of fandom. It's very pleasant.

[asakiyume]

It's decided then: I'll get The Serviceberry

And hurray for the gift economy enriching lives and strengthening connections!

[msilverstar]

What a great ending!

[osprey_archer]

Book inspired real-life berry-picking which illustrated the theory of the book.

Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> Serviceberries are thus one model of a gift economy. They invite humans to understand “natural resources” not as a source to be exploited but as a gift from the earth, which like all gifts creates a reciprocal relationship between the giver and the receiver. We take, but also give. (In the case of the serviceberries, by spreading the seeds.) <<

I also like the gift economy. It's interesting to look at which plants are generous (serviceberries, mulberries, oaks, etc.) and which are stingy (most cacti, milkweeds, honeylocust). Keystones are almost always the generous kind. An oak tree drops a ton of acorns, the squirrels and jays carry them off and plant them, the animals get paid in the nuts they eat, and the oak tree also gets a lot of fertilizer deposited by guests visiting to take acorns. It adds up to over 2000 species who live on or eat from oak trees -- nuts, leaves, wood, and all.

I take a similar approach in my yard with laissez-faire permaculture. It's inspired by nature. I plant things I think will be useful. I expect them to take care of themselves once established. I provide nectary and host plants for insects -- and a bee tree this year! -- who pollinate my flowers. There are enough mulberries for everyone and then some. I'm still trying to reach saturation with serviceberries and nowhere near it. The stand of sunchokes is greatly enjoyed by seed-eating birds after flowering, by woodpeckers when the stems dry, and I can dig tubers in fall and early spring. I like being part of a mini-ecosystem.

>> There are already small-scale attempts in Little Free Libraries and free farm stands and Freecycle and the Buy Nothing movement <<

My Buy Nothing Day post always has a huge list of things you can do other than shopping.

>>fandom is my own most extensive experience with a gift economy, where people write fic or draw fanart and post it with no expectation of direct payment behind perhaps a few comments - but also the more diffuse payment of helping create an environment where other people also post their fan creations for everyone to enjoy.<<

I agree that fandom runs primarily on a gift economy.

>> Now, at this point in my life, I’ve mostly moved over to selling stories for regular old money, <<

I often sell my writing, but in the Poetry Fishbowl, I post one for free, and folks can sponsor more if they wish. And I've learned that the best way to establish a hot new series is actually to give away the first one so folks can see how exciting it is.

>> because we have not (yet) learned how to leverage the gift economy so that it can pay for, let’s say, a two-month road trip. <<

People have done that. There are accounts of it from the Hippie Trail. Some vanlife or backpacker folks do it even today. I've seen articles about it as an experiment in abundance. And then there are the folks so fed up with capitalism that they boycott it and quit using money. Some intentional communities are egalitarian and/or income-sharing, where they minimize money as much as possible -- usually saving it for exchanges outside the community, while inside it works on a gift economy.

Then there are Buddhist monks and nuns, who are officially prohibited from using cash or even barter, and rely entirely on gifts.