Graeber’s /Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value/ gives some theoretical underpinnings for a gift economy.

I wouldn’t necessarily assign all the thinking or the power to the giver. There are a fantastic number of variations on the core idea. In some cultures, the receiver chooses the gift. In others, no one chooses the gift – certain situations just call for certain gifts, with no choosing involved.

More generally, Graeber emphasizes that the point of the gift isn’t the gift. It’s the ongoing maintenance of social ties. It is /not/ a form of market-like transaction with one half of the exchange simply deferred. In many cases, thinking about transactions doesn’t and couldn’t make sense to the actual people involved. For example, among the Iroquois, there were two moieties, each of which buried the members of the other. A statement like “this year, our moiety buried seven of your people, and you only buried three of ours, so you’re in our debt” is absurd.

His /Debt: the First Five Thousand Years/ covers some of the same topics, but I am not finding it as compelling.