34957Y3 HowMuchIsIt?Tussen EinAvdat& haSela haAdom
HUNTER-GATHERERS
HAD NO MONEY. EACH BAND HUNTED,
GATHERED AND MANUFACTURED ALMOST EVERYTHING IT REQUIRED,
FROM MEAT TO MEDICINE, FROM SANDALS TO SORCERY. Different band members
may have specialized in different tasks, but they shared their goods and services through
an economy of f(l)avours & obligations? A piece of meat given for free would carry with it
the assumption of reciprocity - say, free medical assistance. The band was economically
independent; only a few rare items that could not be found locally - seashells, pigments,
obsidian & the like - had to be obtained from strangers. This could usually be done
by a simple barter: 'We'll give you pretty seashells,
and you'll give us high-quality flint!'?
Little of this changed with the onset
of the Agricultural Revolution. Most people continued
to live in small, intimate communities. Much like a hunter-
gatherer band, each village was a self-sufficient economic unit,
maintained by mutual favours & obligations plus a little barter
with outsiders. One villager may have been particularly
adept at making shoes, an other at dispensing medical
care, so villagers knew where to turn
when barefoot or sick?! But villages
were small & their economies
limited, so there could
be no full-time
shoemakers &
doctors.
Asih, man, 79 jaar
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