Kimmerer ruminates on the significance of the Serviceberry, a tree in the Genus Amelanchier that grows in North America, and the plant's relationship to its ecosystem. The Serviceberry is a figure of abundance of the natural world she describes as a gift. Kimmerer's reflections veer into the economics of gifting and reciprocity. The Serviceberry's relationship to other plants and animals offers an alternative model for a modern society that has developed a more transactional economic system rooted in scarcity.

This book reads like a rather long, reflective essay, which I believe is the book's origin. This isn't a necessarily a book of facts or even new revelations. It's a book about a fascination of a plant and how it represents a better model of living with each other. Kimmerer shifts back and forth from describing the Serviceberry to critiquing modern human economy and then to suggestions on how humans can improve their current conditions.

I recommend The Serviceberry to people interested in nature, wildlife, and gardening. I think people who are disillusioned with our modern political economy or feel paralyzed about actions to take will benefit from Kimmerer's perspective.

The Serviceberry reminded me of a couple things:

Kimmerer describes the attitudes and organization of Indigenous Americans. She highlights they ways they encouraged and protected the sharing economy. It reminded me of The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow. Their book is a reminder that the progression of human history isn't on a singular path and for a majority of our time on earth we had alternative ways of living. Prehistoric societies were self-organized collections of people who eschewed centralized power and scarcity economy. Kimmerer's descriptions of the Dish With One Spoon Treaty and the story of Windigo are a reminder that human societies have organized themselves in more sustainable and cooperative models that currently exist. Our current trajectory is not destined or a foregone conclusion.

Kimmerer also describes how plants, animals, fungi, bacteria, they all work together in cooperation with each other to share resources. When people describe ecosystems as a collection individual plants in competition with one another misses the dependency each individual has other species to exist. I am reminded of ecologist Tom Wessel and his lectures on complex systems in nature. Abundance is a sign of flourishing, not necessarily of species dominance. Wessels's theory argues that complex systems are more stable and create more energy (abundance) when species create and adopt unique roles that discourage competition and encourage cooperation. Selective adaptation encourages this process.

Kimmerer describes the behavior of disturbed ecosystems and frontier species. Those systems aren't necessarily ideal because they result in a homogenous collection of resources that get trapped if other species are crowded out. Without other species that energy can not be shared. It's like she's familiar with Wessel's work. It's the complex system of a huge variety of species that creates the most energy and abundance over a long period of times. Both Kimmerer and Wessels agree that the cooperation and complex relationships modeled by nature will benefit human society too.