You guys are what keeps me coming back here.
 Every time I think I'm lost in a hall of mirrors, one of you shows me--Sahlins.
Somewhere, in another reality, I read a study that suggested some pretty radical things about "feudalism"- to wit:
The annual hours of labor required to cover your subsistence and your feudal obligations to the principality that collected it's share of the take were far less than the hours we work today, on the average. Mass warfare, as it became a more widely admired action sport, went from the need to equip a few armored dingbats (nights) to impressing herds of cannon fodder, changed the equation, and mercantilism finished it off.
Anyone remember who did the work, or where?

Capitalism searches out the darkest corners of human potential, and mainlines them.