Reddit mentions of Barter, Exchange and Value: An Anthropological Approach

You should read about leveling mechanisms, redistribution systems, and reciprocity. The idea that humans started out as individuals that conglomerated and were shackled by governments is a false one that has roots in 18th century myths and assumptions (which still pervade economics to this day). People have always been social by nature, contributing towards the group's well-fare. Individualism is a recent invention, and the monetary incentive is as well. Barter economies never existed in as wide-spread or as comprehensive a fashion as economists assume, there was no natural transition between the direct trade of goods to the use of money to facilitate this trade. Money came quickly and at the hands of governments. Mutual gift giving would better describe the exchange of goods taking place internally within societies.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/08/what-is-debt-%E2%80%93-an-interview-with-economic-anthropologist-david-graeber.html


http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.anthro.33.070203.144016

http://www.socsci.uci.edu/~wmmaurer/bio/Maurer-AR.pdf

http://ethnografix.blogspot.com/2010/03/anthropologyeconomics_02.html

http://www.amazon.com/Barter-Exchange-Value-Anthropological-Approach/dp/052140682X

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_anthropology#Critics_of_the_Approaches

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_economy