ment.l" Hunter-gatherers had time and energy for subtle and complex
aesthetic expression in rock art and in music.
Sahlins also contends that typical hunter-gatherers lived in "pristine
affluence."15He argues that inherent in their wayoflifeisaphilosophy. Their
mobility-arising
from their need to leave a campsite when they had de-
pleted the plants and game in its area-made
them adopt a philosophy of
limited wants. They desired no more possessions than they could carry. But
lack ofproperty had its compensations. They had a senseofliving abundant
lives, for the resources available to them exceeded their wants. "We are in-
clined to think ofhunters and gatherers aspoor because theydon't have any-
thing: perhaps better to think ofthem for that reason asfree. . . .Theworld's
most primitive people have fewpossessions, but they arenot poor. Poverty is
not a certain small amount of goods, nor is it just a relation between means
and ends; above all it is a relation between people. Povertyis a social status.
As such it isthe invention of civilization." 16There was, however, a dark side
of the hunter-gatherers' way of life, andit, too, was a consequence of their
mobility. People were left to die when they were too old to walk, and twins