If extreme, restrictive conditions recur often enough over a long period of time, you either adopt specific values and make specific choices. And if you don't, everyone who insists on clinging to the old values will be wiped out. We saw that cultures tend to to adopt this type of residence pattern when they're subject to frequent attacks. But people don't just do things because they make sense; there's also the reality of bargaining power involved.
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Human beings have free will, but our actions are constrained by material realities. Understanding how material and practical conditions shape human behaviour can make all the difference between success and catastrophic failure when it comes to the whole spectrum of political action, from private sector negotiation, to crafting legislation, to making a revolution.
In this episode we look at:
The relationship between economic activity and the high status of women in traditional Haudenosaunee / Iroquois society
How World War I helped women win the right to vote in Europe and North America
How World War II catalyzed the Black civil rights movement in the United States.
The success, failure, and accidental success of the English Peasant’s Revolt of 1381
The implications of the Anarchist Revolution in Spain in 1936-1939 for the future of industrial civilization.
