For-Giving: A Feminist Criticism of Exchange
Genevieve Vaughan is an independent researcher who was born in Texas, USA and presently lives in Italy. She has been working on the theory of a maternal gift economy as an alternative to Patriarchal Capitalism for many years. Vaughan's book For-Giving, a Feminist Criticism of Exchange, (Plain View Press 1997- now Anomaly Press) and two edited books Athanor:The Gift/ Il Dono: A Feminist Analysis (Meltemi Editore 2004), and Women and the Gift Economy: A Radically Different Worldview is Possible (Inanna Press 2007), her e book, Homo Donans (2007), two children's books Mother Nature's Children (Anomaly Press 2001) and Free/Not Free (Anomaly Press 2007) her cd Songs for the Tree of Life, a film on her life: Giving for Giving which will soon be aired on Free Speech TV and her many articles are all available free at her website.A description of the Foundation for a Compassionate Society, an all-women activist foundation for social change which Genevieve founded and directed from 1987-1998 can also be found on the website as well as the audio recordings of the presentations of many international women from the conferences the foundation organized A Radically Different Worldview is Possible: The Gift Economy Inside and Outside Patriarchal Capitalism (2004) and Societies of Peace: the 2nd World Congress of Matriarchal Studies (2005) under the direction of Heide Goettner-Abendroth.In 1992 Genevieve created a temple to the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet near the nuclear test site in the Nevada desert. The temple is still in existence and open to visitors. Genevieve has participated in a number of international women's conferences as well as many of the World Social Forums. She speaks on the gift economy in a wde variety of venues both individually and together with members of the network of which she was a main instigator, International Feminists for a Gift Economy.