I completely agree - even if we don't know exactly what the coins meant to people, we can see that they were valued. And how we define things as valuable is absolutely one of my favourite questions, too! I'm writing a piece at the moment for a book responding on the work of the anthropologist David Graeber, who first got me consciously thinking about the issue. I don't agree with all of his answers, but his work is always an inspiration.
The coins are something of value to the people of South Asia who used them. Our eternal concern as human beings: How does one find something of value?
I completely agree - even if we don't know exactly what the coins meant to people, we can see that they were valued. And how we define things as valuable is absolutely one of my favourite questions, too! I'm writing a piece at the moment for a book responding on the work of the anthropologist David Graeber, who first got me consciously thinking about the issue. I don't agree with all of his answers, but his work is always an inspiration.