The other day I was talking with a friend of mine who married into the Waipisiana people in Rupununi (southern Guyana savannahs) many years ago. He was talking about how years and years would go by and he would not see a single dollar (whether U.S. or Guyanese), no money whatsoever. Whenever he and his family caught an animal or some fish or whatever, they would cut the meat in four parts, keep one, the smallest one, and give the rest to the neighbors ('neighbors' could mean several miles away). Then, anytime the hunting or fishing was bad, they didn't have to worry, as they knew one or more of the neighbors would come riding through with a half a deer or a labba or whatever.
This got me thinking about how much we depend on money in our daily lives... how when I'm broke I can turn into a miserable bastard and start snapping at me woman and ting... and then when I get a paycheck I deh in one party mood grinning and joking and ting... what a hold dem lil pieces of f'in paper have on our lives, eh?
So my question for the forum is: who here has lived for an extended period of time with no money whatsoever? How did it work, what replaced money in the 'economy' you were living in? What was the experience like? And, do you think it's possible or desirable to have a large-scale society (millions and millions of people) without money?