our primitive wealth system

wealth definition

“Wealth”, at its simplest, is that which satisfies human needs and wants of utility. In popular usage, “Wealth” can be described as an abundance of items of economic value, or the state of controlling or possessing such items, usually in the form of money, real estate and personal property. An individual who is considered wealthy, affluent, or rich is someone who has accumulated substantial wealth relative to others in their society or reference group. (wikipedia)

did you ever observe a certain culture that had a different kind of wealth measurement?

me, an indonesian as general had a wealth measurement for the amount money we save, how big our house (and how expensive the accesories inside such as furniture), how many car we have (and the price too), where our children educated (favorite school, and university), and where we work (a job in government is highly appreciated — like in congress, even if they had a corrupted background).

In my culture

to put it in simple, my culture look at wealth as a personal material abundance. and to obtain that,it seems that everyone doesnt care about good/wrong. for example, our congressman here pathethically stupid, they dont have any inovation or any solution on national problem and they in general, have a short temper & high aggresion–they tend to yell or even punch if their opinion rejected, but still they demand an unreasonably high salary.

*phew* let’s get back to the track

my culture appreciated and almost worship someone that rich–material richness. is it only in my country/culture? I can say that all culture had the same definition of wealth, its an abundance posession of a highly valued object. If you know any culture that have a different wealth system, please let me know.

human pattern for obtaining wealth is almost the same. we attend school, and go to college, study for the art of bussiness and finally choose a job that gives us income. income=money. so our wealth measurement is money. the better the job, the greater the money we received thus wealthier we are.

it doesnt stop there, with the abundance of money, we then would spend/invest it in housing, car, furniture. land, luxury goods, etc, in economy this called assets. so the greater posession of this assets and money the higher our wealth ranked.

primitive wealth system

ok. now for the other example. do you ever ask, in the isolated tribes (who doesnt know money) what do they use to measure wealth? they just know hunting, farming, and a basic craftmanship (making a music instrument, statue, cooking utensil, housing, hunting tools, etc). in that kind of culture what are the most valuable commodity? maybe a rare object, or cattle.

according to Malinowski (1921) there are some primitive tribes in his case Trobriand Islanders, a community living on a coral archipelago off the north-east coast of New Guinea. This tribe only allow the chief to be the only wealthy person in the tribe, because he is the one who given privilege of possession of the beautiful yam houses, always ready to receive the crops, and often filled with them; the acquisition of a large amount of Vaygua (tokens of wealth), and of the greater part of the pigs, coconuts and betel nuts.

The symbol of wealth also consist of ceremonial axe, red shell necklace, etc. this object never put to any real use, but extremely highly valued items in the tribe. so as an individual, the tribesman would never be wealthy except they can be the chief.

comparing present and primitives wealth system

Now, if you compare our present wealth system and the primitive system, the difference is in the individual autonomy for obtaining wealth object. it’s rather funny if you think about this, we act just like primitives in terms of collecting wealth with freedom as a shield. The Trobriand Islanders chief would not tolerate anyone who emulate him even on a small scale. And what do we do? we hide behind freedom and equality just to compete with other to show our wealth, coming to a jet-set party with our luxury car, with a $1000 dress, a diamond necklace, unreasonably expensive shoes, watch.

the similarity is we (as the one who consider themself as wealthy) would not tolerate other to emulate our wealth status.

the conclusion is, we, the present human who developed advance technology, make a great literature development, economic management, and other breakthrough, ironically still maintain the primitives drive to obtain things, stock it and showing them with pride.

i consider this as the basic failure of human development

——if anyone have a thought about this please make a comment——

any help to correct any gramatical error or spelling or whatever greatly appreciated

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