Description:
Since its first publication over forty years ago Marshall Sahlins's Stone Age Economics has established itself as a classic of modern anthropology and arguably one of the founding works of anthropological economics. Ambitiously tackling the nature of economic life and how to study it comparatively, Sahlins radically revises traditional views of the hunter-gatherer and so-called primitive societies, revealing them to be the original 'affluent society'.
Review Quotes:
"Sahlins' forays into economic anthropology are full of interest." Cyril S. Belshaw, American Anthropologist
"Stone Age Economics, while not a survey of the economic anthropology, is as of now the most sophisticated, extensive presentation, and argument in and about, the field." Walter C. Neale, Science
"This book is subversive to so many of the fundamental assumptions of Western technological society that it is a wonder it was permitted to be published. Calling on extensive research among the planet's remaining stone-age societies--in Africa, Australia and South-East Asia as well as anecdotal reports from early explorers, Professor Sahlins directly challenges the idea that Western civilization has provided greater 'leisure' or 'affluence, ' or even greater reliability, than 'primitive' hunter-gatherers." Whole Earth Review
"His book is rich in factual evidence and in ideas, so rich that a brief review cannot do it justice; only another book could do that." E. Evans-Pritchard, Times Literary Supplement