Origins of the Economy as Collective Activity

The theoretical approach centred on the individual is misleading (Sect. 1). There are also other neoclassical assumptions which are unfounded: the rational behaviour of economic agents (abundantly disproved by neo-institutionalists); the view that exchange generates the division of labour and not vice versa; the idea that wealth only derives from competition; finally, Robbins’ thesis that the economy is only a matter of choice (Sect. 2). The anthropologists of Stone Age economy have disproved all these assumptions. They show that economic activity begins for survival; it is determined by the group and organised by the formation of custom in labour relations (Sect. 3). Then economic activity grows in parallel with human evolution (Sects. 4 and 5). The Neolithic revolution, by creating large aggregations, showed the existence of conflicts (Sect. 6), the birth of institutions and a strong increase in the division of labour (Sect. 7). But neoclassical and neo-institutionalist authors fail to properly analyse both conflicts and institutions.