Stone age economics
by Marshall Sahlins · first published 1972
11mentions
3recommended by
9HN commenters
2014–2026first – last mentioned
33% recommend67% neutral
«Muchos de los ensayos contenidos en este volumen los escribí en distintas oportunidades durante los últimos diez años. Otros fueron escritos especialmente para esta publicación. Todos ellos fueron concebidos y reunidos aquí con la esperanza de constituir una antropología económica, es decir, algo distinto de las interpretaciones prácticas de las economías y las sociedades primitivas [...]» Clásico indiscutible y obra de referencia en los estudios de antropología, la presente obra (Stone Age Economics, 1974) contribuyó de manera significativa a la crítica del evolucionismo lineal, abandon
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Didn't expect to learn about Sahlins posthumous book via HN's front page. Stone-Age Economics and The Original Affluent Society (the title a pun on a book well-known by 1960s intelligentsia, Galbraith's "The Affluent Society") were interesting reads.
on “Metaperson: The enchanted worlds of Marshall Sahlins” ↗> Did the average person throughout history have more leisure than we do? Unambiguously yes. This is well documented and impossible to ignore. Marshal Sahlins described it best in Stone Age Economics but reading Graeber will get you there or Levi Strauss if you’re into the whole structural anthropology thing
on “Super Mario Bros. and Yoshi Games (Yields) Reduced Burnout Risk” ↗Sahlins is one of the GOATS of modern anthropology Stone Age Economics will change your life if you’re new to anthropology and think the modern society is representative of our social lineage….rather than us living in an extremely new, completely alien context, for a 250,000…
on “'Neanderthals Among Us' review” ↗"Stone Age Economics" by Marshall Sahlins
on “H. G. Wells' 1934 interview with Stalin (2014)” ↗…yourself are probably deficient in this respect to many hunter-gatherer bands, who do less than 40 hours of work per week. They spend the rest of their time in leisure activities. Marshall Sahlins "Stone Age Economics" goes into this. You yourself are probably required to work more hours per week than native people in Polynesia and other areas.
on “Roman Empire per capita GDP shows the Romans were poorer than any 2015 country” ↗Marshall Sahlins is one of the most well respected anthropologists in the field, the context of the book "Stone Age Economics" was to refute the popular misconceptions of hunter gatherers at the time (1960s-1970s) within the field. This book does not have much to do with modern theories within the field on hunter gatherers.…
on “The Original Affluent Society (1972)” ↗…finite. But numerous anthropologists have criticized these assumptions. Margaret Mead didn't see the tendency towards infinite consumption among the tribes she studied. And see Marshall Sahlins book Stone Age Economics -- he doesn't see any evidence of infinite desires among the tribes he studies. Thus it appears Townsend's assumptions are fit only for a society in the middle of the Industrial Revolution. So his "laws"…
on “How Effective Is Economic Theory?” ↗Hunter-gatherers actually worked even less: about 1 1/2 to 3 hours a day As discussed in Stone Age Economics by Sahlins: https://archive.org/details/StoneAgeEconomics_201611 https://bigthink.com/big-think-books/vicki-robin-joe-domingu... The biblical expulsion from the Eden of gathering fruit to the toil…
on “Pre-industrial workers had a shorter workweek than today's (1991)” ↗…for worse quality food, but it generates more calories. This enables classes to develop and enforces an end to nomadic life, because the fields must be tended and the harvest stored and protected. [1] Stone Age Economics by Marshall Sahlins (https://archive.org/details/StoneAgeEconomics_201611) [2] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=genesis%203&ver...
on “New research reveals why and when the Sahara Desert was green” ↗…the path of having a tiny oligarch class with everyone else locked out of ownership of the products of the AI, but this may not be true everywhere, and perhaps somehow won't end up being true here. [1] Stone Age Economics by Marshall Sahlins https://archive.org/details/stoneageeconomic0000sahl/page/n5...
on “Ask HN: Can we just admit we want to replace jobs with AI?” ↗…Anyway, AI/AGI will not yield economic liberation for the masses. We already produce more than enough for economic liberation all over the world, many times over. It hasn't happened. In Marshall Sahlins's Stone Age Economics, he studies work time of hunter gatherer tribes in Africa, Papua New Guinea, the Amazon etc. They often less work less than 40 hours a week. The hunter gatherer painting in caves in Chauvet seemed to…
on “Three Observations” ↗