> Trade did occur in non-monetary societies, but not among fellow villagers. Instead, it was used almost exclusively with strangers, or even enemies, where it was often accompanied by complex rituals involving trade, dance, feasting, mock fighting, or sex—and sometimes all of them intertwined.
They talk about that and say barter generally did exist as trade between groups outside the local community. Which makes sense as an alternative to the gift economy.
Also POW camps aren't really great examples because they're a) already coming from money based societies b) not producing their own goods, ie all incoming things are basically gifts especially in the POW camp and everyone has a similar set of goods initially and c) they're in confinement which distorts any group's dynamics.
That last part of b is really because people all share 90% of the same set of resources and the main difference is the relative weights each person assigns to each item.
They talk about that and say barter generally did exist as trade between groups outside the local community. Which makes sense as an alternative to the gift economy.
Also POW camps aren't really great examples because they're a) already coming from money based societies b) not producing their own goods, ie all incoming things are basically gifts especially in the POW camp and everyone has a similar set of goods initially and c) they're in confinement which distorts any group's dynamics.
That last part of b is really because people all share 90% of the same set of resources and the main difference is the relative weights each person assigns to each item.