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.

The economic organization of a social group "involves the ways people, time, and materials are organized to produce, exchange (and reexchange), and consume goods and services. Such goods and services include:

1. Food, for physical sustenance, along with goods and services used for the purpose of religion, defense, justice, rites of passage, and other aspects of social and community life.

2. Natural resources, such as land, water, and minerals; human cooperation, involved in the division of labor; and technology.

3. Market places, foreign trade, monetary objects, devices for measuring, and record keeping." Cultural Anthropology a Christian Perspective (2nd ed); p108, Grunlan & Mayers.

Grunlan and Mayers define two types of economy: primitive and peasant. Primitive economies are those in which the main transactions involving land, labor, tools, and produce are socially obligatory gift giving. These societies are non market and noncommercial societies in which the major part of resources and produce are transacted in non market contexts." "Peasant economies are generally subsocieties of a larger stratified (arranged into classes or graduated statuses) society that is either preindustrial or partly industrialized." (ibid, p110, 112) The title can be misleading for this class would include the industrially developed countries in Europe and North America.

Many of the tribes in which New Tribes Mission work are of the primitive type, but some are being rapidly forced into industrialization by encroaching civilization. Yet no matter how simple the economic structure is, economic organization is fundamental to their life, being linked with their social structure, their political system, their technology, their ritual institutions, etc.

Economic organization is an integral part of any society, and there are at least three reasons why its careful investigation is to the benefit of the missionary. First of all, it will help in cultural adjustment. In our society, one economic exchange doesn't necessitate another, at least with the same person. Yet in many "national" societies (not to mention tribal), our repeated purchases from the same vendor may socially obligate a relationship between the vender and the missionary.

Secondly, an understanding of economic organization enables a more relevant presentation of the gospel. Among the Kwakiutl of North America, disputes are settled by out giving your opponent (called "potlatch"). Giving is interpreted as aggressive negative behavior. How will they understand God giving his Son as a propitiation for man's sin? Jesus used illustrations of farming and business (Matt. 20:1-16). He understood house building and shepherding. He also understood the Roman tax system, how the Jews felt about it, and used that knowledge in His teaching.

Finally, an understanding of economic organization will help us plant a solid church. Obviously, the type of building and how it is built should be indigenous. But what will issues like giving look like culturally? Will there be a the tendency toward a "cargo-cult"; i.e. a tribal version of the prosperity doctrine in which evidence of God's blessing is material gain? Will there be a tendency to encapsulate the gospel to certain "in groups" which your group has contact with?

Economics are interwoven into the other universals of culture.