>Is anybody familiar with other cultures enough to know if indigenous
>peoples operate from a scarcity paradigm? I don't think so, but I don't
>know for sure. Maybe other cultures would have some alternatives to our
>paranoid perspective.
>
>BB
Yes. The Australian Aboriginals, before the White Invasion, operated on a
completely different concept. This is much more elequently put in Sahlin's
book which I cannot recall the title. They are dubbed the richest people
in the world because their wants are bounded by what they have. They
actually lived all over Australia including some pretty desolate parts of
the desert where we find it hard to believe they survived at all. They had
a delayed reciprocity system where if you want something you take it.
Eventually the person you took it from will want something from you. They
were not immune to sexism though and women did not enjoy equal status.
They are the poorest people in our country now, disenfranchised from their
land. They represent a great proportion of our incarcerated inmates due to
their poverty and the enormous level of racism from the police and the rest
of the 'justice' system.
Respectfully,
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"Interesting: Your people glorified organised violence for 40 centuries,
but you imprison those who employ it privately."
Mr Spock. Star Trek 'Dagger of the Mind'
