"Keepers of the Game: Indian-Animal Relationships and
the Fur Trade" by Calvin Martin
[SA currently]
This quote below is taken from the above book on
the Zen-Amerindian connection as follows:
Prologue:
Marshall Sahlins states, "Wants may be 'easily
satisfied' either by producing much or desiring
little. The familiar conception, the Galbraithean
way, makes assumptions peculiarly appropriate to
market economies: that man's wants are great, not to
say infinite, whereas his means are limited, although
improvable: thus, the gap between means and ends can
be narrowed by industrial productivity, at least to
the point that 'urgent goods' become plentiful. but
there is also a Zen road to affluence, departing from
premises somewhat different from our own: that human
material wants are finite and few, and technical means
unchanging but on the whole adequate. Adopting the
Zen strategy, a people can enjoy an unparalleled
material plenty-with a low standard of living....
That, I think, describes the hunters. And it helps
explain some of their more curious economic behavior :
their 'prodigality' for example-the inclination to
consume at once all stocks on hand, as if they had it
made. Free from market obsessions of scarcity,
hunters' economic propensities may be more
consistently predicated on abundance than our own."
[SA currently]
More abundance, readily available needs in
hunter-gather cultures, than the anxieties and
constant wants in a industrial, post-industrial market
due to the high profit margins to maintain and
compete. As in Zen so the Amerindian, "enjoy an
unparalleled material plenty-with a low standard of
living".
I see this not to be about quantity, and how
much one has. It seems to be better when it is about
quality. The craftsperson that takes the time to make
a quality product versus the cookie cutter model that
shells out quantity but with little care. Do you have
time to sit by the fire and whittle wood?
woods,
SA
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