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06749_Field_TCUM T314.txt
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1996-04-10
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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