Day 20: Trade-ition

Many years ago I watched 5 minutes of the TV that had a profound effect on me. It was a discussion between an anthropologist and a tribesman in New Guinea. The tribe had only recently been exposed to western civilization for the first time. The anthropologist was interested in understanding the universal habits that humans as a species had adopted to prosper. A smile and the ability to dance are really, deeply, hard wired into our human condition.
After a few minutes the tribesman made up his mind and asked: "do you want to trade?"
This wasn't a request for a specific thing. It wasn't about: "wow, I could really do with one of those flashy sharp gizmos you have that cuts through butter like a hot .... mmm palm leave." It was simply a request to trade. The interaction where two people give something of themselves. As an ancient tribe I suppose you had to quickly decide on which side of the fence a new person you came across was. Someone who shares food or sends sharp objects your way. Interaction between people lubricates a sense of safety and belonging. Once we have traded the chances we'll fight is a lot less. We have crossed a barrier a moved beyond the isolation of ownership. Between us now exists a bond, the beginnings of a shared culture with anticipated traditions.

Positive psychology also places emphasis on this act of sharing. More important than the thing of mine that lives with you after we have traded, is the sense of me that lingers on. Sharing is an essential part of feeling good, and raising "happiness." This is most probably why poorer communities feel happier, they share more and thus connect with people and things.

The word "company" has its roots in sharing. Theatre troupes who worked for food and lodging in the middle ages would sit down together and share the day's bread (pane in italian). Everyone who belongs in the sharing circle would be the "com-pane." You know the person you share bread with in a way you don't know the person at the end of a pink slip.
As money reduced trade to transactions this human need for connecting with the person beyond the product has somehow been ignored. The "thing of you" lives with me, but I don't have a sense of you... Social media has now brought the concept of the transparency back into vogue, but somehow the emptiness created by accepting products with invented legacies into our homes, leaves a nagging doubt about this non-symbiotic shuffle.
How can we break out of this cycle to once again build shared "trade-itions?"