ABSTRACT
It may be said that even among the lowest tribes, consisting of hunters, trappers, and collectors, such as the Kubus, the Veddas, and the pygmies of Central Africa, barter is regularly carried on. Primitive trading where it is not desired to make money but always to obtain direct the goods required, appears at first sight to lack the pursuit of commercial profit in our sense. But it must not be forgotten that this trading is, in many ways, restricted by tradition, and that the endeavour to obtain greater commercial profit is frequently made, not in an indirect way By means of money or other medium of exchange, but directly, by obtaining possession of things for which there is a demand. Ceremonial bartering is distinguished from lay trading, for instance, on the Trobriand Islands, where, in particular, the process of barter conducted with the artisan population is looked on with contempt.
