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#meatcoin - the original crypto coin, "mined" by burning sentient flesh

a tangential story from the Terror Management Theory book "The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life" by Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski.

#capital #cattle #capitalism #religion #carnism #commodification #animals #bloodSacrifice #surplus #obeloi #TerrorManagementTheory #TMT

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Thousands of years ago, money originated in religious rituals as consecrated tokens with immortal connotations. The sacred value of the ex change was its primary purpose. In ancient Greece, families held communal feasts in honor of their heroic ancestors. The families believed that ancestors had the character and power of immortal gods and could thus provide protection, advice, and direction for their living progeny. So the living relatives sacrificed bulls (the word "capital" comes from "cattle") and roasted them on spits. Then they distributed the pieces of meat to everyone in attendance, withholding only the "surplus," a piece left on the spit to be "consumed" by the fire as an offering to the heroic ancestors.
The "surplus" meat on the spit was called the obelos, or "coin" (related to the word "obligation"). Obeloi were also made from pieces of metal, bearing images of individual ancestors. Outsiders could use these coins to join the feasts. People would eagerly trade goods in order to obtain these highly valued coins. Because they attributed magical qualities people began to worship them. Carried as amulets, the coins derived their power from "basking in reflected glory" of the heroic ancestors depicted to the coins, on them. In this way, the coins used in the communal feast kept the ancestors' sacred power circulating. Sacrificing the bulls and giving the surplus to the dead ancestors showed reverence for the past. Sharing one's food with ancestors imbued the living with supernatural attributes to ensure prosperity in the future.
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