It has sometimes been thought that very simple societies have no economic organization. After all, what kind of "organization" is there in a "stuff and starve" society? However, all humans have the same basic needs for sustaining life.. food, shelter, protection and health. The study of any society, however simple, will show that the resources of a people are handled in a systematic way with regard to those basic needs. The definition of what will meet those needs, and the way those needs are actually met by a society can be quite different.

General scope of topic
Why study it?

In the examples, notice how economics are interwoven into the other universals of culture:

Systems of production
Systems of exchange
Property concepts
Consumption