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The essence of capital is its ability to mobilize social labor by buying labor power and setting it to work. This requires a market in which the capacity of human beings to work can be bought and sold like any other commodity: buyers of labor power offer wages, which sellers accept in return for a commodity, their own labor.

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More quotes by Eric Wolf

Everywhere in this world of 1400, populations existed in interconnections.

There may be "pie in the sky when you die" but how the pie is dished out on the ground has considerable existential relevance.

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Man rises up against nature by means of what we would today call culture.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Eric Wolf (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.