Extended Families and Markets
This schematic diagram shows two extended families (encircled), a
couple of nuclear families that have no nearby affiliates, and, because
they all have things to barter with each other, a place and time to
meet and bargain over these items has been established by custom. (It
is labeled "market" here.)
Siblings and cousins may always have kept up friendly relationships
over their lifetimes. As population densities increase, extended
families would tend to live closer together. As resources become more
heavily used, conflicts may develop among different family groups. As
before, different groups may have surpluses of different kinds of
materials. Moreover, as extended families cohere more closely it may
become practical for some members to concentrate on making arrowheads,
on weaving baskets, and so forth. When these useful items can be
produced in surplus numbers, they may be exchanged for other resources
that the family finds in short supply.
When two hunters meet in open country and trade, an arrowhead will
either be exchanged for a knife or it won't. However, when
knives, arrowheads, fish hooks, and perhaps even more things are
offered for trade at a marketplace, each person will be looking for the
best item he or she can get for their surplus items. If two or
more people want the same item, that may influence what each is willing
to offer in exchange. Here is a situation in which it may be valuable
to be an old person, someone with enough experience to be able to
evaluate an arrowhead, a bow, or some other item offered for trade.
Over time these people will develop good judgment in evaluating
potential bargains.
One function that the market may facilitate is the accumulation of
surpluses in less easily degradable form. A surplus of dried meat
sufficient for one winter may be well worth carefully preserving. If
twice that amount were to be accumulated, half of it might be wasted.
If some of that dried meat could be traded for knives, arrowheads,
arrows, bows, fish hooks, or other valuable articles, they could be
kept in a safe place for months or even years and then either used or
traded for more needed items
In addition to trading, some items may be used for religious purposes
(e.g., sacrifices), gifts to visitors, gifts to children forming new
families, Gifts and offers of hospitality to people coming from afar
have no immediate survival value to the donors and hosts. However,
these acts serve to bind people in friendly associations and help
assure that in times of need those who are donors now may receive a
friendly reception in some future time of need.
As population density increases and extended families grow in size, the
potential benefit offered to one group by acts of predation against
smaller neighboring groups, or thefts committed by individuals of one
group against members of another group may begin to occur with some
frequency. The harder conditions become and/or the more strongly
resources are exploited by growing populations, the more likely it will
become that the dangers to oneself of acts of predation on others may
be obscured by the pangs of hunger, cold, or other such factors. When
farming was invented and dwellings became permanent, at first
communities were far from each other and there were no walls or other
fortifications. Later, when population growth had forced people
much closer together and it was no longer possible to find land to
clear at the edge of one's own farm, walled villages or towns became
the norm. So as population density increases, more and more effort must
be devoted to preserving the fruits of one's labor, skill, and
inventiveness.
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