fragmenting media such as printing to inclusive or mass media 
like the telegraph.

     Since all media are extensions of ourselves, or 
translations of some part of us into various materials, any 
study of one medium helps us to understand all the others. 
Money is no exception. The primitive or nonliterate use of 
money is especially enlightening, since it manifests an easy 
acceptance of staple products as media of communication. The 
nonliterate man can accept any staple as money, partly 
because the staples of a community are as much media of 
communication as they are commodities. Cotton, wheat, 
cattle, tobacco, timber, fish, fur, and many other products 
have acted as major shaping forces of community life in many 
cultures. When one of these staples becomes dominant as a 
social bond, it serves, also, as a store of value, and as a