Economics as Ethnocentric

Sahlins defines an affluent society as "one in which all the people's material wants are easily satisfied" (1972, p. 1). But the "people's material wants" are culturally and sociologically determined. Sahlins uses the great divide of East and West to explain his definition. For example, he notes that, traditionally, Western economists such as John Galbraith have argued that people have infinite wants with only finite ways of achieving them. Sahlins believes that such economists view their economic systems as based on the idea of scarcity.

On the other hand, relying on the Buddhist believe in Zen, Sahlins argues that the people in Eastern societies view their needs as finite and few. Therefore, such societies view the available resources as adequate or even abundant (1972, p. 2). Sahlins' use of the Western-Eastern dichoto

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ction that make labor more efficient, when "efficient" is defined as labor that produces more product for less work. Thus, Western economists praised the reduction in human effort needed to produce food through the use of domesticated plants and animals during the neolithic period as a remarkable advance in man's evolution (Sahlins, 1972, p. 5). But such a view does not consider that the method of hunting food itself in many non-Western societies has cultural value to those societies' inhabitants and is itself as much an end result as is the food such hunting provides. It is important, therefore, that Sahlins notes the failure of many non-industrial societies to feel themselves lacking in material resources (1972, pp. 7-9). In particular, Sahlins points to the !Kung people of Africa, who choose not to encumber themselves with material goods that they would have to carry when they travel to different food sources (1972, p. 10). Rather, peoples such as the !Kung make clothing and ornaments from the resources that surround them. Because the resources are available to everyone, the possession of them does not grant anyone particular status above the others. Rather, the goods are shared and the society is not based on any conc
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Approximate Word count = 1521
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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