The Limits of Imagination in Economics

Economics assumes a division between different spheres of human behavior that among people like the gunwingu and the nambi kuara, simply does not exist. This in turn allows us to assume that life is neatly divided between the market place where we do our shopping, and the sphere of consumption which concerns ourselves with music, feasts and seduction. From these examples it begins to be clear why there are no societies based on barter. Such a society could only be one in which everybody was an inch away from everybody else's throat, but never actually striking.