xmca@weber.ucsd.edu writes:
>This would presume that sex was the first social interchange to be
>commodified and engender exchange value. I may be wrong but I suspect
>assigning exchange value to food and protection (" if you pay me I won't
>hit you" or "if you support me I will make sure that the goddesses don't
>smite you with thunder and lightening") would come first.
anthropology studies do indicate that the exchange of daughters for
dowries and wider social influence is the earliest trading system, in
particular for nomadic tribes, who trafficked in women because any tribes
survival required attention to incest taboos and cultivating generational
lines.
again, Gayle Rubin's paper on the traffic of women is the most thorough
analysis of this.
>
>Why are there expectations of implicit commodification of service in
>certain transactions and not others. Does anyone tip flight attendants? If
>rationality was to dictate events you follow Rob's experience in Butlins
>(and sometimes nouveau riche and mafiosi in the movies) you tip before you
>receive the service to get preference in comparison to others... and there
>is more where that came from.
all tipping is about gaining preference, directly or indirectly. how many
times have people left large tips because they'd be returning to the
place, or left no tip because they had no intention of returning? flight
attendants used to receive tips, in the early days, btw, and it stopped as
the airlines became more commercialized, higher salaries came in,
benefits, and so on, and tipping was discouraged as unnecessary.
my father makes a sizable "donation" to the hospital whenever he requires
medical attention and receives extra-ordinary assistance.
diane
"I want you to put the crayon back in my brain."
Homer Simpson
diane celia hodges
university of british columbia, centre for the study of curriculum and
instruction
vancouver, bc
mailing address: 46 broadview avenue, montreal, qc, H9R 3Z2
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