But in distinguishing between absolute and relative needs, he recognized the importance of social context and status in shaping people’s desires. In this respect, he was thinking more like social anthropologists who unlike economists are interested in understanding why in some contexts, such as cities, diamonds are more valuable than water, whereas in others, such as traditional foraging communities in the Kalahari Desert—which now hosts the two richest diamond mines ever discovered—diamonds were worthless but water was priceless.
