Customer Reviews

Limited Wants, Unlimited Means: A Reader On Hunter-Gatherer Economics And The Environment

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This is a wonderful collection of articles on economic anthropology. The book begins with the seminal article by Marshall Sahlins' on the "original affluent society" which debunked the myth that pre-agricultural life was "short, nasty and brutish". Monographs by Richard Lee and Lorne Marshall that originally appeared in 'Man the Hunter' are included.

The main thrust of the book is that primitive cultures had found a way of living on this planet that was sustainable, but in the neolithic era our farming ancestors abandoned this way of living for a much more ardous life-style that is ecologically unsustainable. What was the basis for this change? This book explores some of the canonical assumptions in our economic thought and how it differs fundamentally from that of primitive cultures. This is a great starting point for anyone interested in paradigms for sustainable development. References and further reading lists are particularly useful.

this book completely destroys from front to back and should be a starting point for anyone interested in egalitarian / immediate return hunter-gatherers and band life. the book does a fabulous job of starting out with an excerpt from Marshall Sahlins' "the original affluent society", the key to upturning the anthropology world on its head. the book goes over mechanisms of hunter-gatherer life that keeps them autonomous, cooperative bands and displays how relationships within them are fluid, neglecting them of leaders. James Woodburn's works from the Hadza on this are crucial on the comparison between immediate return and delayed return societies. Women's status is covered by the late Eleanor Leacock and the book is concluded with an essay by Paul Shepard entitled "A post-historic primitivism" that completely shreds historical consciousness.

John Gowdy did an amazing job at putting all these essays together in such a coherent way throughout covering so much ground. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunters and Gatherers is a good companion to this.

but kinda dry if you are not. still, the information is very useful