Seasonal social structures were consciously chosen by traditional societies for practicality and play.
Material conditions, not conscious choice, are the basis of social phenomena according to anthropologists.
Diverse seasonal social structures were influenced by resource availability and cultural traditions.
The transition from hierarchy to equality in societies highlights the adaptability of social structures.
Deep dives
Shift from Hierarchy to Equality
The podcast discusses how human societies transitioned between hierarchy and equality in the past. The authors argue that societies shifted from dominance hierarchy to democratic hierarchy, emphasizing the importance of understanding the conditions that lead to dominance hierarchies.
Democratic Hierarchy Dynamics
The episode explores the concept of democratic hierarchy, where hierarchy benefits all its members, contrasting it with dominance hierarchy imposed by the elites. The podcast highlights how specific conditions allow dominance hierarchies to form, emphasizing the role of resource control in creating power imbalances.
Challenges to Dominant Hierarchy
It is noted that dominant hierarchies are sustained by certain individuals having control over essential resources and limited alternatives for others to access these resources. The discussion focuses on identifying and altering conditions that allow dominance hierarchies to persist.
Social Structures in Seasonal Societies
The podcast delves into societies with seasonal variations in social structures, such as the Innuit and the Quakudal. These societies exhibit shifts in hierarchy and equality based on seasonal activities, illustrating adaptive social patterns influenced by environmental conditions.
Inuit Seasonal Living Patterns
The podcast discusses the Inuit's seasonal living patterns, emphasizing the shift from hierarchical structures in summer to gender equality and communalism in winter. In summer, property rights and patriarchal authority are dominant, while in winter, communalistic values and charisma-based leadership prevail. Furthermore, the Inuit's migration between multi-family homes and individual tents is explained as a response to seasonal variations in resource availability and societal needs.
Cultural Variation in Social Structures
The podcast delves into the cultural variations in social structures observed in the Innuit and other indigenous groups, highlighting the adaptability of these societies to seasonal and economic conditions. It contrasts the patriarchal norms in some societies during specific seasons with more egalitarian practices in others, influenced by resource distribution and environmental factors. The dynamic nature of social organization based on economic activities and environmental factors is a key point of discussion.
Seasonal Flexibility and Hierarchy
The podcast explores the concept of seasonal flexibility in social hierarchies, illustrating changes in power dynamics and authority structures across seasons. It questions the permanence of inequality in human societies, suggesting an analysis of how different forms of social organization evolved and the reasons behind the entrenchment of hierarchical systems over time. The narrative challenges traditional views on the origins of social inequality and encourages a deeper exploration of the factors contributing to the establishment and persistence of hierarchical structures throughout history.
In this episode we cover the rest of chapter 3 of David Graeber and David Wengrow’s book The Dawn of Everything.
In this chapter, the authors claim that the seasonal social structures of the traditional Nambikwara, Lakota and Kwakiutl were the result of conscious choice, grand theatre, play and expedience.
In doing so, they repeatedly invent various things that they attribute to famous anthropologists like Clause-Levi Strauss and Marcel Mauss which those authors never said.
They also claim that those authors attribute social phenomena to conscious choice when in reality they attribute them to material conditions.
We also discover that Claude Levi-Strauss goofed up Nambikwara social organization.
And we look at materialist explanations for phenomena such as:
Why did the traditional Inuit have private patriarchy and private property in summer but gender equality and communal property in winter?
Why did the Lakota have an Akicita police force that would punish crimes and enforce rules in the buffalo season but not the rest of the year?
The similarities between Nuer prophets and ancient Israelite prophets in the Old Testament.
Finally, we apply the authors’ logic about conscious choice and seasonal social structures to McDonalds employees and have a good a laugh.
PATREON (I refuse to monetize my YouTube because I don’t want to subject you to ads, and it takes me 2-6 weeks to make one episode of these, so please help out if you can!)
