Basic to every form of social organization is the method of obtaining those items
essential for human survival. Differences between cultures are expressions of how
people of a particular society exploit natural resources to produce their food,
clothing, tools, and other items that they need in order to live as human beings.
These 'necessary conditions of existence' shape the relationship of people to each
other and their command of natural resources. Individuals utilize nature, directly or
indirectly, to produce the necessities of life, not in isolation from each other, not
as separate individuals, but in common groups and societies with shared or
conflicting cultural norms.
Taking the environment as a whole, the rate of formation of the biological inputs as
energy, underpins all human production. Biological productivity is therefore of vital
importance as a focus of human affairs. It is a consistent feature of human
adaptations to environment, that cultures have to strike a balance between their
command of natural resources as inputs to communities (
natural economy), and
the primary production of biological materials and energy that is driven by
planetary and solar forces (planetary economy). The rules relating inputs to
outcomes in goods and services, are set by the organisation of human relations for
production (political economy).
