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As indigenous scientist and author of Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy. How, she asks, can we learn from indigenous wisdom and the plant world to reimagine what we value most?
Our economy is rooted in scarcity, competition, and the hoarding of resources, and we have surrendered our values to a system that actively harms what we love. Meanwhile, the serviceberry's relationship with the natural world is an embodiment of reciprocity, interconnectedness, and gratitude. The tree distributes its wealth – its abundance of sweet, juicy berries – to meet the needs of its natural community. And this distribution ensures its own survival. As Kimmerer explains, "Serviceberries show us another model, one based upon reciprocity, where wealth comes from the quality of your relationships, not from the illusion of self-sufficiency".
As Elizabeth Gilbert writes, Robin Wall Kimmerer is "a great teacher, and her words are a hymn of love to the world". The Serviceberry is an antidote to the broken relationships and misguided goals of our times, and a reminder that "hoarding won't save us, all flourishing is mutual".
The Serviceberry was originally published in abbreviated form in Emergence Magazine.
Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. She is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants as well as Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses. Kimmerer is a 2022 MacArthur Fellow. She lives in Syracuse, New York, where she is a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology, and the founder of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment.
"The time you'll spend reading this book will, like the time spent picking wild berries, nourish your soul, heart, and mind. I hope to give this book to everybody"
– Anthony Doerr
"Compelling [...] A moving meditation on what a giving tree can teach us about building a fairer society"
– TIME
"The Serviceberry is a gem of a book. It invites us to think again about economics, and imagine another way of relating to one another based on generosity, kindness, interconnectedness, and restraint. The book reminds us that how we think, and the stories we tell, shape how we live – and it's high time we thought and lived differently, with new stories, about our place in nature."
– James Rebanks
"A meditation on communing with nature and cultivating connections with one another [...] Kimmerer makes a convincing argument, wrapped in beautiful language and vivid imagery"
– Washington Post
"A sweet reminder of our interdependence"
– The New York Times Book Review
"A gorgeous meditation on reciprocity and abundance in nature [...] a lyrical call to action"
– Oprah Daily
"An uplifting, open-hearted little book that asks us to reframe our relationships in the world as ones of easy generosity. To be wealthy, explains Robin Wall Kimmerer, is to have enough to share: give all that you have, and take only what you need"
– Cal Flyn
"A masterful reflection on ecology and culture [...] startling in its simplicity. Kimmerer invites readers to envision a life that embraces the gift economy – one built on reciprocity, collective well-being, and care [...] Her beautiful and hopeful prose leaves readers feeling sated, galvanized, and keenly aware of the world around them"
– Kirkus
"Vivid and poetic, and also fierce [...] An elegant distillation of Kimmerer's political ideas"
– Guardian
"This wise little book asks us to escape our doomed extractive economy, learning from the cooperative circularity of living systems and the sustainable stewardship of indigenous cultures"
– Gaia Vince
