Pre-capitalist Societies

Abstract

Of the three thousand million years since the origin of life on earth, hominids, or man-like creatures, have been around for about two million. But of these man-like species, only one remains — homo sapiens: wise man. Two million years, on the galactic scale of time, is a very short period. As a species we are in our early childhood. Fossilised coelecanths are to be found in deposits of 400 million years ago. Even the African ape goes back for 20 million.