THE ECONOMIC LIFE OF PRIMITIVE PEOPLES

The first section of the book develops in detail the distinctions created by machinery between the primitive and civilized peoples, and outlines the differences in viewpoint regarding such basic factors as profit, distribution, the universality of common knowledge and equipment and training for life on a subsistence level, with no labor problems. Anthropology has been social rather than economic; this book seeks to change that, and he succeeds in developing his thesis, so that one realizes how many economic factors there are in even the simplest primitive community. His proving ground is not limited to any one geographical unit; he has drawn on the Americas, past and present, on Africa, Asia and the Pacific Islands. An extremely valuable contribution.