Аңшы-жинаушы қоғамдарының молшылығы: жеткіліктілік және қарапайым қажеттіліктер

The "original affluent society" is the proposition that argues that the lives of hunter gatherers can be seen as embedding a sufficient degree of material comfort and security to be considered affluent. The theory was first put forward in a paper presented by Marshall Sahlins at a famous symposium in 1966 entitled 'Man the Hunter'. Sahlins observes that affluence is the satisfaction of wants, "which may be 'easily satisfied' either by producing much or desiring little." Given a culture characterized by limited wants, Sahlins argued that hunter gatherers were able to live 'affluently' through the relatively easy satisfaction of their material needs. At the time of the symposium new research by anthropologists, such as Richard B. Lee's work on the !Kung of southern Africa, challenged popular notions that hunter gatherer societies were always near the brink of starvation and continuously engaged in a struggle for survival. Sahlins gathered the data from these studies and used it to support a comprehensive argument that states that hunter gatherers did not suffer from deprivation, but instead lived in a society in which "all the people's wants are easily satisfied."

The basis of Sahlins’ argument is that hunter gatherer societies are able to achieve affluence by desiring little and meeting those needs/desires with what is available to them. This he calls the "Zen road to affluence, which states that human material wants are finite and few, and technical means unchanging but on the whole adequate" (Sahlins, Original). This he compares to the western way towards affluence, which he terms as the "Galbraithean way" where "man's wants are great, not to say infinite, whereas his means are limited " and "the gap between means and ends can eventually be narrowed by industrial productivity". based on the abundance of the local flora and fauna. This demonstrates that hunter gatherers do not exist on a mere subsistence economy but rather live among plenty. Through knowledge of their environment hunter gatherers are able to change what foreigners may deem as meager and unreliable natural resources into rich subsistence resources. Through this they are able to effectively and efficiently provide for themselves and minimize the amount of time spent procuring food. "[T]he food quest is so successful that half the time the people do not know what to do with themselves". These studies show that hunter gatherers need only work about fifteen to twenty hours a week in order to survive and may devote the rest of their time to leisure. Using data gathered from various foraging societies and quantitative surveys done among the Arnhem Landers of Australia and quantitative materials cataloged by Richard Lee on the Dobe Bushmen of the Kalahari, Sahlins argues that hunter gatherer tribes are able to meet their needs through working roughly 15 20 hours per week or less.

Sahlins' theory has been challenged by a number of scholars in the field of anthropology and archaeology. Many have criticized his work for only including time spent hunting and gathering while omitting time spent on collecting firewood, food preparation, etc. Other scholars also assert that hunter gatherer societies were not "affluent" but suffered from extremely high infant mortality, frequent disease, and perennial warfare. This appears to be true not only of historical foraging cultures, but also prehistoric and primeval ones. David Kaplan collected references to several problems with the "Original Affluent Society" theory and especially the McCarthy and McArthur and Lee studies, including the definitions of "affluence," "work," and "leisure," the nutritional adequacy of the hunter gatherer's diet, and the occurrence of "demand sharing," the constant pressure to share as a disincentive to increased effort.