On 8/12/06, Doug Henwood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
On Aug 12, 2006, at 6:48 PM, Jim Devine wrote:
> Doug, I think you're falling for the textbook barter vs. money
> dichotomy fallacy. It really should a be barter-exchange vs.
> money-based exchange vs. non-exchange systems choice.
>
> In an organization not using money internally
Such an organization would either be quite small, with rudimentary
production, or it would be quite advanced, a society that exists now
only in our heads.
A society in which the use of money is not unknown but quite marginal
in the lives of a large majority of population can grow very big and
complex: Japan till "the Land Tax Revision Act (Chiso Kaisei Jorei) of
1873 (the sixth year of Meiji), which provided secure legal title in
place of merely customary title to land, permitting sale, division,
annexation, mortgage, and lease. Above all, it abolished the tax in
kind (rice) paid to feudal lords, and replaced it with a tax in money,
paid to the central government" (Yoshisaburo Yamasaki and Robert V.
Andelson, "Japan," The American Journal of Economics and Sociology,
December 2000,
<http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0254/is_5_59/ai_70738933/print>).
Such a society is known to give rise to refinement in art,
literature, cuisine, and so on and also to widespread literacy*,
sodomy*, and transvestism in drama.
* "In Japan from 1603, the start of the Edo period, an age of
increasing prosperity and literacy under a strong central government,
this sort of liberal education was on offer only to the ruling
samurai. Commoners received a more basic, "three Rs" type of
schooling, and usually had to pay for it. But at least, in increasing
numbers, they received some sort of education. By the end of the Edo
period in 1868, even tiny fishing villages had schools. Japan's
overall literacy rate is believed to have been close to that of
England, where, following the rapid expansion of Sunday schools in the
mid-19th century, more than three-quarters of children were learning
to read the Bible, if not much else" ("The Great Learning," 23 Dec
1999,
<http://www.economist.com/diversions/millennium/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=347204>).
* "Writing in 1571, he [Portuguese traveller Gaspar Vilela] complains
of the addiction of the monks of Mt. Hiei to 'sodomy', and attributes
its introduction to Japan to Kuukai, the founder of Koyasan, the
Shingon headquarters[6]. Jesuit records of the Catholic mission to
Japan are full of rants about the ubiquity of pederastic passion among
the Buddhist clergy. What particularly riled the missionaries was the
widespread acceptance these practices met with among the general
populace. Father Francis Cabral noted in a letter written in 1596
that 'abominations of the flesh' and 'vicious habits' were 'regarded
in Japan as quite honourable; men of standing entrust their sons to
the bonzes to be instructed in such things, and at the same time to
serve their lust'[7]. Another Jesuit commented that 'this evil' was
'so public' that the people 'are neither depressed nor horrified'[8]
suggesting that same-sex love among the clergy was not considered
remarkable" (Dharmachari Jñanavira, "Homosexuality in the Japanese
Buddhist Tradition,"
<http://www.westernbuddhistreview.com/vol3/homosexuality.html>).
--
Yoshie
<http://montages.blogspot.com/>
<http://mrzine.org>
<http://monthlyreview.org/>
