This paper reveals the central position that the article "Cosmologies of Capitalism" occupies in the work of Marshall Sahlins. At the same time, it suggests criticisms of some of Sahlin’s propositions, but does so by assuming a posture internal to the author’s work. This perspective stresses the fact the "trans-Pacific sector of the world system" is, indeed, composed of a system of exchanges, but that these exchanges serve to do much more than to inter-connect functionally different societies. The present paper radicalises this argument and tries to show how an anthropology of exchange can be the basis for the study of the history of any Indigenous society and of its contacts with capitalist realities.
Marshall Sahlins; Colonialism; Capitalism; Exchange