Hunter Gatherers - The Main Impetus Away From Agaletarianism
Evidence for farming as a means of subsistence only starts after we get into the holicene geological era, which starts about 12 thousand years ago. When hunter gatherers in different places and times found themselves in conditions where hunting and gathering was no longer sustainable they now had the option to switch to agriculture. Men and women form gendered organizations to defend their interests and to make sure that the other gender never gets an upper hand. Meanwhile, one sub set of hunter gather societies that we know of are extremely agaletari, and deliberately so. They have all sorts of institutions and practices to make sure nobody ever accumulates much more property or authority than any one else.
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In this episode we cover chapter 1 of David Graeber & David Wengrow’s book The Dawn of Everything, entitled Farewell to Humanity’s Childhood; or Why This isn’t a Book About the Origins of Inequality.
In doing so, we look at the following:
How the book’s underlying thesis: that human social structure is ultimately a matter of choice and experimentation, is fundamentally incoherent, and how this idea sets us up for future dramatic political failures, similar to those of Occupy Wall Street or the Great Peasant’s Revolt of 1381.
What the standard narrative of human origins actually is, vs. the caricature elevator pitch version that Graeber & Wengrow claim to be debunking.
Why most anthropologists believe that human beings began as egalitarian hunter-gatherers despite knowing about all of the evidence that Graeber & Wengrow present in order to argue the otherwise.
How and why Graeber & Wengrow flush down the toilet the analytical tools that they need in order to answer their own questions about how we got stuck in dominance hierarchies.
How social structure actually works.
How Graeber & Wengrow’s arguments are great material for right wing talking points.
Why there is room for deliberate social change in a world where social structure is largely a matter of conditions and relative bargaining power, rather than a matter of “choice”.
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