How small is small? Subcultures I think mostly aren’t gift economies, a non-exhaustive list:
Magic the Gathering and associated Friday Night Magics/game stores.
The average community soccer league.
Toastmasters.
Your average martial arts dojo.
They do have some gift, but it’s not what they principally run on. Of those, MtG has the most gifts (I got my start playing magic using a gift of a friend’s extra cards) but the local game store I frequented years ago was making a pretty deliberate profit off me, and I expect the whole thing would look different if Wizards of the Coast suddenly public-domained Magic and vanished.
How small is small? Subcultures I think mostly aren’t gift economies, a non-exhaustive list:
Magic the Gathering and associated Friday Night Magics/game stores.
The average community soccer league.
Toastmasters.
Your average martial arts dojo.
They do have some gift, but it’s not what they principally run on. Of those, MtG has the most gifts (I got my start playing magic using a gift of a friend’s extra cards) but the local game store I frequented years ago was making a pretty deliberate profit off me, and I expect the whole thing would look different if Wizards of the Coast suddenly public-domained Magic and vanished.