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The 'purses' the accused man makes are large sealable tents for safely spending the night in. The pursemakers wonders how many of the people who do not speak a word in his defence had spent the night safely due to his skillfully made purses.

Some people escape along a cliff.

Humans from the stars arrive in spaceships. They look so different that the people on the planet do not realise they are related to them. The people from the stars try to teach them that they are indeed all human beings.

I read in before 2010. It was quite short, perhaps a novella.

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James Blish's "The Thing in the Attic"

Honath the Pursemaker is a heretic. He doesn’t believe the stories in the Book of Laws which claims giants created his tree-dwelling race. He makes his opinion known and is banished with his infidel friends to the floor of the jungle where dangers abound. Perhaps he’ll find some truth down there. – The Thing in the Attic is one of Blish’s Pantropy tales.

Found with search terms of site:archive.org "pursemaker"

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  • Wow that was fast @Fuzzy Boots!
    – Judith Jones
    Commented Mar 26 at 14:32
  • 1
    Lucked into the right search terms. I figured it sounded like the sort of classic story that might be in the magazine archives, and "pursemaker" sounded distinctive.
    – FuzzyBoots
    Commented Mar 26 at 14:35

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