Global Dialogues

In the Kichwa culture, the most prominent Indigenous group in Ecuador, communities come together in joy and service in minkas, a type of celebration wherein local community members help the host with work, like painting their house or completing the harvest, and are treated to a party with food and music. Andean reciprocity has been a core theme of my time studying abroad in Ecuador, showing up in just about every facet of life—the enduring generosity infectious. In my host family, if anyone (even neighbors) notices that it starts to rain while laundry is drying, you run out to bring it in. My host siblings and cousins have given me some of their most special possessions as gifts, like LEGO cars, homemade Valentines, and parts of a coin collection. Ecuadorian culture, which is heavily influenced by Kichwa values, takes joy in caring for others, joy in being one with your community, even new community members like a foreign exchange student.

In building human fraternity on the global level, we must center our work in reciprocity. However, not a capitalist, market-based reciprocity that entails quid pro quo and the exchange of currency for goods, land, and services. Rather, we must embrace reciprocity in a spiritual sense, helping your neighbor next door and your neighbor from across the world. This change will start local, but I have seen the blossomings in my Kentucky neighbors, who have continuously been slammed by historic floods, storms, tornadoes, and snow. In response, people pull on their boots, donate whatever bottled water, stuffed animals, or warm clothing they can, and get into their communities to lend a hand. Kentucky Poet Laureate Silas House best summarized this feeling in his poem “Those Who Carry Us,” writing, “Sometimes the only music is hammers and saws, but we keep going, aiming for the high ground where they will be standing with their arms out, saying Come here, and rest. Let me help you.” Once we achieve this joy and commitment in taking care of our neighbors in the same zip code, we can build up to support our human family across the world, such as by supporting immigrants or engaging in cultural exchanges of music, food, and celebration.

However, this reciprocity does not end with other people. As Robin Wall Kimmerer, an Indigenous scholar and botanist, writes in Braiding Sweetgrass, gratitude must also extend to Mother Earth, being grateful for the air we breathe, water we drink, food on the table. We must give homemade gifts, welcome our neighbors into our homes, and protect and honor our shared Earth. To foster global human fraternity, we must follow Kimmerer’s teachings of a “culture of gratitude” which elicits a “culture of reciprocity.” Further, “If what we aspire to is justice for all, then let it be justice for all of Creation,” including humans and non-humans alike. Global human fraternity is possible with the centering of gratitude and reciprocity, seeking equality, safety, and justice for all of our neighbors.

Emma Vonder Haar (C'26) is a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences at Georgetown University.