The State: Its History and Development Viewed SociologicallyOppenheimer, Franz
History
The State: Its History and Development Viewed Sociologically
Oppenheimer, Franz
State, The
[L] This may account for the use made of old women as heralds. They
are doubly available for that purpose, since they are worthless for
warfare, and are supposed to be endowed with specific powers of sorcery
(Westermarck), even more than old men, who also are treated cautiously,
since they may soon become “ghosts.”
The existence of an “international” division of labor is, of course,
presupposed before the development of a regular trade relation can
begin. Such a division of labor exists much earlier and to a greater
extent than is generally believed. “It is quite erroneous to suppose
that the division of labor takes place only on a high scale of
economic development. There are in the interior of Africa villages of
iron-smiths, nay, of such as only turn out dart-knives; New Guinea has
its villages of potters, North America its arrow-head makers.”[69]
From such specialties there develops trade, whether through roving
merchants, or by gifts to one’s hosts, or by peace-gifts from tribe
to tribe. In North America, the Kaddu trade in bows. “Obsidian was
universally employed for arrow heads and knives; on the Yellowstone, on
the Snake River, in New Mexico, but especially in Mexico. Thence the
precious article was distributed all over the entire country as far as
Ohio and Tennessee, a distance of nearly two thousand miles.”[70]
According to Vierkandt: “From the purely home-made products of
primitive peoples, there results a system of trade totally distinct
from that prevailing under modern conditions.... Each separate tribe
has developed special aptitudes, leading to interexchange. Even among
the comparatively uncivilized Indian tribes of South America, we find
such differentiations.... By such a trade, products may be distributed
over extraordinary distances, not in any direct way through
professional traders, but through a gradual passing along from tribe
to tribe. The origin of such a trade, as Buecher has shown, is to be
traced back to the exchange of guest-gifts.”[71]
Besides this exchange of guest-gifts, a trade may grow from the peace
offerings which adversaries after a fight exchange as a sign of
reconciliation. Sartorius reports on Polynesia: “After a war between
different islands, the peace offerings for each group were something
novel; and if the present and return present pleased both parties, a
repetition took place, and thus again the way for exchange of products
was opened. But, these, in contrast to guest-gifts, were the bases of
continuing intercourse. Here, in place of the contact of individuals,
tribes and peoples met. Women are the first object of barter; they form
the connecting link between strange tribes, and according to evidence
from many sources, women are exchanged for cattle.”[72]
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