Publish or perish within the scientific community is a potlatch of ideas! They’re freely given away in exchange for status, which translates into more desirable jobs (just as the ritual potlatch was used to apportion land and fishing rights). A side effect is the redistribution and dissemination, not of wealth, but of ideas! The whole process of publish or perish is just a means of nonviolent competition for social status.

I need to study more anthropology.