“There is,” Sahlins wrote, “a Zen road to affluence, departing from premises somewhat different from our own: that human material wants are finite and few.”

Among pre-agricultural tribes, Sahlins calculated, food acquisition took only three to five hours per day, leaving plenty of time for feasting, recreation, and sleep.

In contrast, “the market-industrial system institutes scarcity, in a manner completely unparalleled,” as it requires insufficiency as the foundation of all economic activity.

- Metaperson, The enchanted worlds of Marshall Sahlins,
by Anna Della Subin

Review in ‘The Nation’ of Marshall Sahlin's book:
‘The New Science of the Enchanted Universe: An Anthropology of Most of Humanity’

https://www.thenation.com/article/culture/marshall-sahlins-new-science-enchanted-universe/

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