this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2024
296 points (97.7% liked)

Today I Learned

17296 readers
356 users here now

What did you learn today? Share it with us!

We learn something new every day. This is a community dedicated to informing each other and helping to spread knowledge.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must begin with TIL. Linking to a source of info is optional, but highly recommended as it helps to spark discussion.

** Posts must be about an actual fact that you have learned, but it doesn't matter if you learned it today. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.**



Rule 2- Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Posts and comments which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding non-TIL posts.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-TIL posts using the [META] tag on your post title.



Rule 7- You can't harass or disturb other members.

If you vocally harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.

For further explanation, clarification and feedback about this rule, you may follow this link.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.

Unless included in our Whitelist for Bots, your bot will not be allowed to participate in this community. To have your bot whitelisted, please contact the moderators for a short review.



Partnered Communities

You can view our partnered communities list by following this link. To partner with our community and be included, you are free to message the moderators or comment on a pinned post.

Community Moderation

For inquiry on becoming a moderator of this community, you may comment on the pinned post of the time, or simply shoot a message to the current moderators.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

From wikipedia:

Contrary to popular conception, there is no evidence that societies relied only on barter before using money for trade.[73] Instead, non-monetary societies operated primarily along the principles of gift economics, and in more complex economies, on debt.[74][75][76] When barter occurred, it was usually between strangers or would-be enemies.[77]

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 104 points 1 month ago (5 children)

If you want to learn a lot more about how economies worked in the past, I highly recommend the book "Debt: The First 5,000 Years" by David Graeber, author of "Bullshit Jobs." It goes into this topic, and then presents a very detailed world history of economic systems from the perspective of an anthropologist.

[–] Atsur@lemmy.world 17 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Graeber’s work, as always, is truly incredible. Such a shame he died so young

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

His last book, "Pirate Enlightenment, or the Real LIbertalia" is pretty good if you haven't read it, if you don't mind a lot of Malagasy names.

[–] terraborra@lemmy.nz 10 points 1 month ago

Came here to say exactly this.

If you want to dive even further into why the foundations of modern macroeconomics are bunk, then I can also recommend reading Debunking Economics by Steve Keen.

[–] dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net 9 points 1 month ago

That book radically changed my worldview, and then I read The Dawn Of Everything and it was changed again.

[–] TootSweet@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I've been meaning to read that book for a long time but haven't gotten around to it yet.

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Definitely give it a try. It's one of the books that helped me understand the terms "scales falling from my eyes."

[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

There were multiple books that helped you understand that term?

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

There's been a few of them. A People's History of the United States, 1491, and Humankind are some good examples

[–] Akasazh@feddit.nl 3 points 1 month ago

Thanks for the recommendation! I had a reminiscent Reddit reflex, where I looked the writer up to see if it wasn't a 'guns, germs and steel' type of popular history, but was pleasantly surprised.

I have a bunch of reading to do now. Cheers!