This article written by Chapurukha Kusimba describes money as a universal language, something that everyone, everywhere understands. Starting in the upper Paleolithic nearly forty thousand years ago, individuals would barter for weapons and tools, creating the first forms of currency. The article describes that the common belief is that money first originated as a form…
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Why and When did money start?
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The article by Chapurukha Kusimba discusses about when and why people start using money. In modern days, there are many types of money. There are paper dollar bills, coins, and even online currency. Bitcoin is a type of “cryptocurrency” that uses encryption techniques to regulate the amount of currency and verify the transfer of the …
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Kusimba Origin of Money
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This article by Chapurukha Kusimba talks about when and why people started using money. People didn’t always pay for things with coins and paper bills like they do today, but instead they made deals with each other by giving the other party an item they wanted. One example of this is back in the Upper…
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Kusimba Origin of Money
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This article by Chapurukha Kusimba talks about when and why people started using money. People didn’t always pay for things with coins and paper bills like they do today, but instead they made deals with each other by giving the other party an item they wanted. One example of this is back in the Upper …
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The Alphabet
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Geselowitz, “The Alphabet” Cuneiform Around the 3rd millennium BCE, a writing system, called cuneiform, developed in the Near East. It is written by etching symbols into clay tablets with reed styluses (almost like writing with pen and paper). Cuneiform was a combination of symbols that represents things, and marks that indicated syllables. Some of the …
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Geselowitz “The Alphabet”
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Writing systems and written language have taken many different forms and evolved dramatically over time. Older systems focused on a wide range of symbols representing ideas or certain things, while more advanced systems continued to narrow down the amount of characters it would take to convey a message. Writing systems began to become easier to …
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The Alphabet
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The Alphabet by Micheal N. Geselowitz from “The Ancient Mediterranean” discusses the creation and evolution of symbols that we now call the Alphabet. From the earliest existence of civilization, cuneiform was one of the only forms of writing language that individuals would … Continue reading →
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For the Love of Beer
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Ask any college student and they are most likely to tell you that beer is great. It is cheap and a good way to drink, reminds us of some of our favorite past times like tailgating and barbecues. But there is little talk about the significance of beer to human development. In Joshua Mark’s article, Beer, …
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Comment on When – and why – did people first start using money?- Kusimba by natedekin
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Brandon,
I think you did a wonderful job summarizing the article by Kusimba on the history of early currency. I really enjoyed hearing about the perspective that before currency, someone always got the “short straw,” of a battering deal. I also thought that it was very neat to learn about what the earliest forms of currency actually were, such seen in the example with the seashells. I do think that perhaps there should have been some more information on how different currencies were exchanged or seen in other cultures. Aside from that, The information, particularly on how the government utilized currency was very interesting, and the separate article you included was very helpful, for when I initially had to put your information into a time perspective. Great article, I hope to read more by you.
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Comment on When – and why – did people first start using money?- Kusimba by jlegg
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Brandon,
A very nice post here. I have a question related to indigenous peoples and colonizers that interacted with payment methods. When people bartered for goods, say an indigenous person trading a shell, bead, precious item for a good, how did the other party interact with that item? You may not know the answer, and that’s okay, I just thought of this while reading your work.
Keep up the great work!
Best,
John