The continuum of social distance is useful in that it captures the role of different behavior and institutions in exchange as one moves away from the household, and it may parallel formal models of kin selection. Further, the concepts of production and social distance for a commodity like obsidian can be empirically linked to expectations about the degree of lithic reduction as one moves from production to consumption contexts. The use of the social distance concept to position a diachronic, "primitive" household (substantive) exchange against a synchronic, "modern" and commercialized (formal) realm is a problematic and false dichotomy. Virtually all exchange contexts contain elements of both social contracts and economical behavior. Social distance, territoriality, and access to products can be manifested in a variety of ways that range from the organization of technology, socially circumscribed access, and symbolic restrictions; a situation that poses difficulties for archaeologists attempting to establish the relative accessibility of a particular product prehistorically.