SOSC 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Robert Heilbroner, Kalahari Desert, Gain Capital
13 Feb 2018
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Document Summary
Talks about the bush people !kung of the kalahari desert in southern africa, non-capitalists, divide a hunted kill without question, share the parts, everyone eats. !kung children are taught to hunt and gather, thus training a labour force. Obedience in age-old ways here is essential, for their production and distribution is an economy under the guidance of traditions. In contrast to tradition the other mechanism that is necessary is command. Command that is enforced by coercion- threat of punishment. Different than internalized pressures of tradition, it"s often they need people to go against routines in the past. Tradition, market-place, and command is what makes up our societies capitalism. Command is the mode of organization necessary to effectuate deliberate change in the trajectory society. Capitalism is driven by itself, the energy in the individual, the need for money, to get ahead, the desire to gain capital.
