Productive Self-sufficiency

We start by considering the complementary relationship between the goals of self-sufficiency and specialization in human economies. Self-sufficiency seems to have often been a goal to retain control and independence for a social unit, but as we describe, specialization was frequent because of the complexity and risks of tasks and the availability of lower-cost options through exchange. Among households, self-sufficiency in production for internal consumption was a reasonable objective of many traditional economies. Households often sought to retain economic independence for most subsistence foods and some everyday technology. Marshall Sahlins (1972) captured this traditional objective as the domestic mode of production (DMP), and it is foundational for Kenneth Hirth’s (2020) analysis of traditional economies. The independent household was idealized in early Western philosophy. In the Archaic period of Greece, the autarkic peasant household was desirable, and many ancient farmers produced most of their own food. In Politics written in the fourth century BCE, Aristotle maintained that, although the individual could not be self-sufficient, households could and should achieve it for daily needs. The village community could then be self-sufficient in more than basic needs.