The present article discusses the solidary basic economy issue. It treats its origin as concept and it emergency context, placing it an European phenomenon. The text attempts to interpret this kind of practice under the economical anthropology perspective. This approach demonstrates great pertinence when suggesting a overcoming of the conventional economics, which allows the apprehension of certain dimensions of the phenomenon that would not be recognited in the neoclassical economical approach. The text still covers the different forms of manifestation of the solidary basic economy in the European context, stressing some of the main dilemmas and challenges faced in everyday practice of such experiences. The article ends with an exam of the Brazilian case concerning the phenomenon.