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Re Julian's [OPE-L:2036]:
> (snip) reminds me to recommend Witold Kula's
> "Measures and Man" to list members.
Fuller citation:
* Witold Kula _Measures and Men_ (Princeton University Press, 1986,
ISBN-0-691-05446-0)
> In the present context the most striking feature of Kula's book is
> his demonstration that the size of a whole series of basic units (of length,
> area, and volume) traditionally varied in time and place according to the
> productivity of (human) labour.
> Thus length and area units were based on how much ground one worker
> could plough in a day, and hence were bigger in districts where labour was
> more productive. Likewise, volume measures were based on the output from a
> unit of land, as defined above. Hence a bushel of wheat (in a given
> district) would be a different volume to that for oats.
Other striking features of Kula's book are his explanations of how *class
struggle* and the *state* played a vital role in the historical
establishment, reproduction and change of measures.
In solidarity, Jerry
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