What could possibly be the reason which made Sahlins think that hunter-gatherer societies are better than the modern ones? The book received praise from critics for tackling conventional thought and offering new solutions to economic problems. It can be said that Sahlin's book the original affluent society argues that the affluent society is better than today's modern society. (“Affluent Society Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words”, n.d.), (Affluent Society Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 Words). This kind of transfer in social ideology can be understood as a transfer from anthropocentrism to biocentrism or aesthetic anthropocentrism. The main features of this thesis now seem to be widely accepted by anthropologists, despite the strong reservations expressed by certain specialists in foraging societies concerning the data advancedto support the claim. The following essay, “The Original Affluent Society,” is written by Marshall Sahlins and was taken from the book Stone Age Economics published by Aldine-Atherton, Inc. We have liberally edited Sahlins’ important investigation into societies prior to the rise of what we generously call “civilization” but hope we have maintained the author’s … Overview. The Original Affluent Society Marshall Sahlins Hunter-gatherers consume less energy per capita per year than any other group of human beings. !Kung informant, /Xashe asks, "Why should we plant when there are so many mongongos in the world?" The following essay, “The Original Affluent Society,” is written by Marshall Sahlins and was taken from the book Stone Age Economics published by Aldine-Atherton, Inc. We have liberally edited Sahlins’ important investigation into societies prior to the rise of what we generously call “civilization” but hope we have maintained the author’s clarity and purpose. his Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics at the University of California in Berkeley The original affluent society is a theory which states hunter-gatherers were the original affluent society. Co., c1968. adapted from Marshall Sahlins, Stone Age Economics. Traditionally, people who subsisted from their land can easily pack up and move to a richer area when needed. The original affluent society thesis is that hunter-gatherer life was not "nasty, brutish, and short" as the Hobbesian stereotype goes. John Kenneth Galbraith’s work of economic history, The Affluent Society is (1958), outlines how World War II reshaped America’s public and private sector wealth for the worse. However, during the Enlightenment period, the notion of progress became pervasive, which eventually prompted sociological and cultural revolution, the Western stage theories of progress. “The soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all. Without proper care for it we can have no community, because without proper care for it we can have no life” (Wendell Berry). Creating Tragedy Out of Triumph In the affluent society the hunters and gatherers had limited, and analyzes the same phenomenon by referring to it as the “dependence effect.” The basis of his theory lies in one simple sentence, “As a society becomes increasingly affluent, wants are increasingly created by the process by which they are satisfied.” According to Galbraith, two factors are able to create wants – the advertising industry and a type of society that has high standards of living. Yet when you come to examine it the original affluent society was none other than the hunter's - in which all the people's material wants … He was accused of wrongly predicting a great out of control unemployment and inflation rate. In his work “Affluent Society”, the market creates a want and provides a product to satisfy it. He blamed house rents as the single culprit for the rising cost of living and said he had let out four houses to expatriate tenant families and raised rents only marginally. Fifty years ago when ‘The Affluent Society ’ was published for the very first time it was a strong written attack against the situation of that time period. This theory was first stated by Marshall Sahlins at Original affluent society Steps were also taken to minimize Federal budget was and keep inflation under control. "Landlords are greedy," he said of property owners, his fellow countrymen. Before the 18th century, the belief was that societies were in a state of decline amongst ancient civilizations. Hunter-gatherers are the people living in small mobile societies who makes their life on subsistence level by daily hunting and gathering activities. So yes, if you total it up, it may be lower than 8 hrs. Duygu Tanrıverdi
This paper will talk about why Sahlin thought this way. [1] He believes hunter-gatherers were able to achieve much for their own societies, and able to …