Non-money economies, and a few links

[magid]

This is a fascinating article by David Graeber, On the Invention of Money – Notes on Sex, Adventure, Monomaniacal Sociopathy and the True Function of Economics. It's a fairly lengthy discussion with some fascinating ideas. The one that caught me most was that non-money economies are not barter based, except for certain specific sorts of circumstances (distance trading, for instance), as has been shown by anthropological research. Whether it's potlatches or other sorts of gift giving with reciprocity implied, to be able to be part of society, it's not about money, and the assumption of economists that once there were specializations, there were goods that were bartered, which lead to the rise of money, merely shows the limited imagination (and understanding) by economists, in commodotizing everything always. It made me think about Burning Man; I know that a gift economy can't work within a larger money-based economy, but it seems closer to some form of traditional than I'd originally realized.

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A few other links that caught my eye today:
* Standord's spring 2012 free, non-credit, online course offerings
* one teacher's approach towards preventing gender bullying in a first-grade classroom (but generalizable to other grades, obviously)
* an infographic of Dr. Who (hat tip to osewalrus)
* fascinating fracticality in the new Zebbler Encanti Experience video, Get in There (plus my amusement at the robes that made me think of Maccabees, given the season)