The gift exchanges Hyde writes of, the Kula of the Massim and the potlatch of the Kwakwaka’wakw, are from far away and long ago. But those exchanges serve as metaphors for the practice of art—the gift the artist is given by art and the gift the artist gives in making art—which happens in the here and now. And in the here and now, we can’t seem to speak of anything, art or our own children, in terms that aren’t drawn from capital investment.
