The headman's duty to call a village meeting, and it's the duty of everyone to go along. And if you don't show up, thers social pressure to to make you feel guilty. If they do, they're what gossiped about or shunned or shamed. Let's talk about religious laws. I'm wondering how much one can generalize here. So the laws of hindoo india, islamic laws, the jewish laws, and i suppose the canon law in in europe, the christian law. Im i'm hesitating a bit. Whatoes religious laws differ from sort of secular laws?
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.