Waterhole Economies

Read Time: 2 Minutes

If hunter-gatherer societies sustained themselves for the overwhelming majority of human existence, is there something modern civilisation has forgotten? That’s Samuel Layne’s central question, and whether you end up agreeing with his conclusions or not, it’s a genuinely interesting one to dig into.

Layne draws on anthropology, economics and environmental science to argue that our earliest societies have real lessons to teach about sustainability and cooperation. The research is extensive but presented accessibly, so you don’t need a background in any of those fields to follow along.

Where I found myself unconvinced was in the leap to the present. It’s hard to imagine principles that worked for small, relatively self-contained communities scaling to a global population that depends on modern agriculture, medicine, infrastructure and technology. I kept wondering about the gap between where we are and where the book points… and Layne doesn’t really close it.

The title also invites scrutiny. The Only Economies That Never Collapsed is a bold claim, and given how incomplete the archaeological record is, I’m not sure anyone can make it with confidence. Local collapses, resource depletion, environmental damage… I feel these must have happened across a few hundred thousand years even if the evidence has long since vanished.

None of that stopped me getting something from it, though. If a book is making you question assumptions most of us rarely stop to examine, it’s doing useful work. I finished it with more questions than answers, which felt like the right outcome.

Jason Guess does a great job with the narration. This isn’t the easiest material to keep engaging over 20+ hours, but his upbeat, conversational delivery keeps things moving. Production is generally excellent, though there are occasional references to figures and illustrations that obviously don’t exist in audio form. They don’t feel essential, at least I didn’t miss them, but noticeable.

I didn’t finish it convinced by everything. I did finish it thinking, which is probably the more useful result. Something to ponder on as the world seemingly hurtles further away from this starting point at increasing speed.

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