The laws of leviticus are about telling people how to live properly. And that can involve things like family relations contracts, torts, landownership but it can also involve prayer, ritual and so on. So a lot of the laws are really directed at g people as individuals,. A on how to lead good moral lives in accordance with darmoral god's path for the world, or god's commands.
Rulers throughout history have used laws to impose order. But laws were not simply instruments of power and social control. They also offered ordinary people a way to express their diverse visions for a better world. The variety of the world’s laws has long been almost as great as the variety of its societies.
In this conversation, Shermer speaks with Oxford professor of the anthropology of law, Fernanda Pirie, who traces the rise and fall of the sophisticated legal systems underpinning ancient empires and religious traditions, showing how common people — tribal assemblies, merchants, farmers — called on laws to define their communities, regulate trade, and build civilizations. What truly unites human beings, Pirie argues, is our very faith that laws can produce justice, combat oppression, and create order from chaos.