The “original affluent society” is principal that the lives of hunter-gatherers are seen as embedding a sufficient degree of material comfort and security that is more affluent than current times. The theory was first put forward in a paper presented by Marshall Sahlins, at the University of Michigan, in 1966 entitled ‘Man the Hunter’. During neolithic times, it was observed that affluence is the satisfaction of wants, “which may be ‘easily satisfied’ either by producing more or desiring less.”

Bibliography: Sahlins, Marshall (2017). Stone Age Economics. Routledge. p. 2. ISBN9781138702615.

Lee, Richard B. (1965). Subsistence Ecology of !Kung Bushmen (PhD). University of California, Berkeley.

Kaplan, David (2000). “The Darker Side of the Original Affluent Society“ (PDF). Journal of Anthropological Research. 56 (3): 301–324. doi:10.1086/jar.56.3.3631086. JSTOR3631086.

Lee, Richard B. (1979). The !Kung San: Men, Women and Work in a Foraging Society. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN0-521-29561-0.