[PEN-L:3120] Re: Re: Aztecs

["Charles Brown" <CharlesB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Yes, I agree that the "starting between communities" is part of his thesis. The gift exchange may be within one community. Interesting.  I'd have to look into the facts of "wampum" more. I wonder what language that is.

I would be surprised if the land on Manhattan was part of the commodities of those tribes.

Charles

>>> Jim Devine <jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 02/09 2:11 PM >>>
>I always thought ( after Marx , Chapter 1, Vol. 1 of _Capital_) that
technically money only exists in commodity exchange ?
>
>There is a large anthropological literature on primary cultural gift
exchange, reciprocity, etc. as different than commodity exchange ( no
expectation of repayment, symbolically rather than accountingly constituted
etc.). <

I was thinking about the use of wampum between tribes or bands. Marx talks
about how commodity exchange starts at the borders between communities. And
if commodity exchange is happening, so is commodity production.


Jim Devine jdevine@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx &
http://clawww.lmu.edu/Faculty/JDevine/jdevine.html