Stone Age Economics

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Routledge, Oct 28, 2020 - Social Science - 348 pages

Stone Age Economics is a classic study of anthropological economics, first published in 1974. Ambitiously tackling the nature of economic life and how to study it comparatively, the book includes six studies which reflect the author's ideas on revising traditional views of the hunter-gatherer and so-called primitive societies, revealing them to be the original affluent society.

The book examines notions of production, distribution and exchange in early communities and examines the link between economics and cultural and social factors. It consists of a set of detailed and closely related studies of tribal economies, of domestic production for livelihood, and of the submission of domestic production to the material and political demands of society at large.

 

Contents

Acknowledgments
The Structure of Underproduction
Intensification of Production
The Spirit of the Gift
On the Sociology of Primitive Exchange
Exchange Value and the Diplomacy of Primitive Trade
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About the author (2020)

Marshall Sahlins is Charles F. Grey Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and of Social Sciences at the University of Chicago.

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