[1] Cosmetic surgeons use flaked obsidian scalpels because they are so sharp that they minimize scars. The finest edge that surgical steel will support is about three times as thick as the finest edge that obsidian will support.
[2] The description "nasty, poor, brutish and short" was coined about 1650 by Thomas Hobbes, who used it in Leviathan to describe life in a state of war but, perhaps because Hobbes argued that people without government must be in a state of constant war, many Victorians adopted it as a description the of the state of 'savages.'
[3] Marshall Sahlins, Stone Age Economics, Aldine-Atherton, Chicago, 1972, pp 14-20.
[4] Richard B. Lee and Irven Devore, eds, Man the Hunter, Aldine Publishing Co, Chicago, 1968, pg 37.
[5] Richard B. Lee and Irven Devore, eds, Man the Hunter, Aldine Publishing Co, Chicago, 1968, pp 39-40.
[6] Melvin Konner, The Tangled Wing, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1982, pg 5.
[7] While we admire the expertise of modern hunters and gatherers we must remember that today's hunters and gatherers are just as highly advanced in their technology as we are in ours. We can't assume that the hunters and gatherers of 30,000 years ago would have been able to live in comfort in a desert like the Kalihari. They didn't have to, and they probably did not develop the expertise until they needed it.
[8] Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1998 edition, 28:696, early axes, 28:442.
[9] Jane Jacobs, The Economy of Cities, Random House, Vintage Books, 1970, pp 5-31. In the vernacular, a settlement with few residents is a village but a large urban settlement is a city. Jacobs looks at the function of settlements, rather than the size, and she argues that a village is based on agriculture but a settlement based on trade or manufacturing is a city. Because I fear that this book may be confusing enough already, I choose not to make the fine distinction in this case. I call the craft village a 'village' because, even compared with a village in modern times, it has few residents.
[10] Archaeologists in Southern Ontario, where I live, know that they can often find the remains of prehistoric villages or camps near groves of sumac trees -- which produce berries that can be used to make a refreshing drink.
[11] Robert J. Braidwood, Prehistoric Men, 8th edition, Scott Foreman and Company, Glenview, Ill., 1975, pp 118-119. In an alternate scenario for the development of villages anthropologist Marvin Harris suggests, in Cannibals and Kings, (Random House, New York, 1977), that the first villages might have been established as bases for people who collected and processed wild grains. That appears to have been the case in Mexico and it may have occurred in other areas because grains can be stored, but nomads could not carry them while they travelled. Further, nomads would not want to carry the stones they need to grind grain. Harris' suggestion makes a lot of sense but it is only one of several scenarios for the development of a village, and it's likely that different villages were developed in different ways. We're going to stick with Jane Jacobs' scenario of a craft village here, because I think a craft village is more likely than a gathering village to play a role in the development of The System.
[12] Jane Jacobs, The Economy of Cities, Random House, Vintage Books, 1970, pp 28-29.
[13] Elizabeth Barber, Women's Work - the First 20,000 Years, W. W. Norton & Co, NY, 1984, pg 96.
[14] Grahame Clarke, Economic Prehistory, Cambridge University Press, 1988, pg 182-3.
[15] Grahame Clarke, Economic Prehistory, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1988, pg 169-198.
[16] Treasure has value, but it has no intrinsic value. Gold, diamonds, jewelry, fine art and so-forth have value only because we agree that they are valuable. In a sense, their value is created by The System.
[17] Prof Grahame Clark outlined the trade patterns of prehistoric Europe in Chapter IX of his book Prehistoric Europe, Methuen & Co Ltd. London, 1952 (1965).
[18] Encyclopaedia Britannica online, silk road.
[19] P. S. Garlake, Ruins of Zimbabwe, Lusaka National Educational Co., 1974.
[20] Ivan Van Sertima, They came before Columbus, Random House, New York, 1976.
[21] German psychologist, Dr. Hannes Lindemann, crossed the Atlantic alone in an African dugout canoe in 1955. Dr. Lindemann is better known for his later crossing in a mass-produced German kayak, but most descriptions of the crossing by kayak include references to his crossing by dugout. His crossing by kayak was the cover story of Life Magazine, July 22/57.
[22] Betty J. Meggers, "Contacts from Asia," The quest for America, pp 239-259, Praeger Publishers, New York, 1971. See also "Skulls enliven debate on earliest Americans" The Globe and Mail Sept 4/03, pg A3.
[23] Information on the trade of Cahokia is from pamphlets distributed at Cahokia Mounds, World Heritage Site and State Historic Site, Collinsville, Ill.
[24] Encyclopaedia Britannica CD 98, Ancient middle eastern arts and architecture/pre Hittite period/neolithic and chalcolithic period.
[25] In some cases, of course, an army may have settled in a village without violent conflict but the relationship between the soldiers and the villagers would still be about the same. The soldiers are armed and can give orders, and the villagers must obey.
[26] Again, I remind you that this is a conceit. For convenience we will pretend that everything happened in one village but in fact we know that civilization and The System must have roots in several dozens or hundreds of villages, and independent beginnings on at least four continents.
[27] Paul Radin, The World of Primitive Man, Grove Press, NY, 1960, c1953, pg 11.
[28] Encyclopaedia Britannica CD 98, Mamluk.] For about 300 years, starting in the late 14th century, the Ottoman Empire maintained an army of slaves called Janissaries (Encyclopaedia Britannica CD 98, Janissary) and in modern times many countries have fought wars with armies of unwilling conscripts who were, for all practical purposes, slaves. Since the debacle of Vietnam, the United States armed forces have been all volunteer, but slave armies still exist. See "Child soldiers total 300,000 worldwide, UN says," Globe and Mail, June 13/01, pg A12.
[29] Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Encyclopedia Britannica, Chicago, 1952.
[30] As we make these distinctions we must remember that they describe functions, not people. A soldier is a taker while he is on duty but when he is off-duty he might make arrows or hunt or gather food, which he might sell in the market. If he also works occasionally as a tax collector or administrator he might at different times be a member of all four groups -- a taker, a maker, a trader and an agent. If we were trying to judge people this man would be difficult to categorize but because we are trying to describe economic functions we have no problem. At any given time, he is what he is at that time.
[31] "American soldier detained in grenade attack on US troops" HoustonChronicle.com Mar 22/03.