All human societies evolved from traditional economic systems. Animals even have crude economic systems of their own, mostly based on their social hierarchies. There's nothing "primitive" about them, well, I just hate the word primitive to begin with. I suppose they are quite primal, but they are also the most effective economic systems.
There are three major economic systems that most people are aware of; traditional, command, and market. Most indigenous peoples rely on a mix of command and traditional economics to decide who gets what kinds of things, when, and how, etc. Here in America, and throughout most of Western civilization we rely on a market economy.
Market economies are flawed because they rely chiefly on perpetual growth. Of course, perpetual growth is impossible in the long run. Market economies and joint market/command economies have succeeded in the short term, growing fantastically with the rise of modern society. They have also depleted 90% of oceanic environmental capital, 50% of rainforest land (which, unlike deciduous forest land, cannot be restored even somewhat with human interference), and countless species, not to mention human lives.
Hm. From a mathmatician's perspective, it is evident that the market economy of today is doomed to collapse within the century. This is not to say that all market economies will be doomed to failure; but- market economics rides on the stipulation that humans will act in their own personal interest, and that means consuming as much as they can. Evidence that this has gone out of control is all around us.
Most of us accumulate hoards of belongings that far exceed our actual needs. An obsession with stuff. We collect it and run rampant accumulating it, throwing it out, arranging it. At one point in my career I created a series of paintings based on the mammalian tendency to collect useless things. My hands aren't clean or anything, I love to buy books, stuffed animals, and trinkets that make me happy in some way. Mementos. I like to think that materialism like this is a side-effect of modern society. Whether or not we realize it, we're trapped in it. There is no alternative to contributing to the death machine. It will consume all it can until the centrifuge finally collapses.
The saddest part is that there is no such mechanism, really. It is born of our own psyches, our own species birthed it and raised it to vile maturity. Well, I digress.
Some people think that the traditional economies of indigenous peoples are inferior because they are less productive, and do not rely on growth or innovation to function. But again, from a mathematician's perspective, these economies have been successfully and sustainably functioning for tens of thousands of years, whereas our own industrial command/market economy is doomed to last but 200, at most.
Scientifically, there is no avoiding it. It is wonderful to hole up and revel in human ingenuity or the wonder of existence. It is a nice escape. I think we are all escapists, if we aren't already radicals.
