The thing about the classical economic and Austrian theory of money originating from barter is that they do assume it emerged from a sort of barter that never really occurs. And once you realize that that sort of barter never really occurs (except after currency collapses), it no longer makes sense as a narrative to explain the origin of money. The interesting thing about Graeber is that he’s an anthropologist rather than an economist, so his “theory” isn’t purely speculative like a lot of economic theories. The earliest writings that we have are basically receipts and records of debts. So, he approaches it more from a perspective of analyzing historical facts and data (ancient texts, ancient coins, how modern primitive societies are developing primitive economies, etc.), and then constructing a theory based on the data. Economists, on the other hand, often tend to deal more with abstract speculation. Having read Adam Smith, Carl Menger (as well as Keynes, Rothbard, Hayek, Friedman, and others), I definitely think that Graeber’s book has a more scientific basis than purely philosophical basis, which gives it a bit more credibility in my view.

Btw, I wasn’t really disagreeing with this video. Mostly, I was pointing out research that I thought corroborated your point. The other video would have been better if you had approached it from this other perspective, but I mostly agree with the conclusion you’ve reached.