Davis

Egalitarian society is an ideal that never lasts because humans participate in maintaining it. What I would call “social entropy” is always at play. Much like energy must be input into a physical system to maintain order, maintaining egalitarian norms requires constant work. Someone must reinforce the values of fairness and shared res…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
It’s sometimes pointed out when one argues that matriarchies simply don’t work that they worked in Polynesian societies.

The absence of patriarchy doesn’t necessarily imply a matriarchy.  It implies egalitarianism.

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
A bunch of hippies are smoking weed and chilling out….very calm and egalitarian. One of them opens a box of chocolate cookies. He becomes the leader. Humans just cannot cope without having a leader. And if he (or she) can do the thinking for them too, then the happier they all will be.

In an egalitarian society, i…[Read more]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
A bunch of hippies are smoking weed and chilling out….very calm and egalitarian. One of them opens a box of chocolate cookies. He becomes the leader. Humans just cannot cope without having a leader. And if he (or she) can do the thinking for them too, then the happier they all will be.

It’s sometimes pointed out w…[Read more]

A bunch of hippies are smoking weed and chilling out….very calm and egalitarian. One of them opens a box of chocolate cookies. He becomes the leader. Humans just cannot cope without having a leader. And if he (or she) can do the thinking for them too, then the happier they all will be.

Unseen wrote:
This makes anarchism a practicsl impossibility.

It’s a practical impossibility within a delayed-return economy, because, at least: 1) hierarchical coordination is necessary to get the jobs done; 2) a small group of people is always going to control the means of production; 3) if they’re lucky, a small group of people can control a…[Read more]

Simon Paynton wrote:
It was probably a free anarchist state, with no hierarchy.  We assume that egalitarianism was the default position, and this is psychologically hard to break as each man and woman is as good as anyone else.

You are delusional. There will always be a power dynamic which results in the populace being divided in…[Read more]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
It is what Stephen Jay Gould called ‘Punctuated Equilibrium’, a theory that suggests Evolution proceeds with long periods of stasis, Interrupted by short, sharp bursts of rapid change.

If the environment changes in stops and starts, then it makes sense for evolution to do the same.

Unseen wrote:
I mean, if bees and…

[Read more]

@Reg

Science is coming around to the view that these pre-homo sapiens humans didn’t really fit the traditional “cave man” notion of stupid no account lunks. I mean, if bees and termites can have a social order and organize to create a place to live, why not human beings?

It is remarkable that a flourishing and sophisticated human civilization existed at Gesher Benot Yaʽaqov some 780,000 years ago. They had a controlled use of fire, the ability to organize and hunt and gather a broad spectrum of food types.

What is most remarkable is that ‘only’ 120,000 years earlier, our human lineage had undergone a severe gene…[Read more]

Simon Paynton wrote:
I’m sure that other species of human beings were capable of making settlements, if the conditions were temporarily right for it, i.e., if there were rich resources in one place, like next to a waterway or sea.  Culture – why not?  In the sense of making artwork.  I’m not sure they would have had cultural markers to mark the…

[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
What if archaeologists are finding evidence of human settlements and the rudiments of culture 800,000 years ago?

I’m sure that other species of human beings were capable of making settlements, if the conditions were temporarily right for it, i.e., if there were rich resources in one place, like next to a waterway or sea.  Culture -…[Read more]

What if the first signs of human civilization weren’t measured in thousands of years or even tens of thousands of years? What if archaeologists are finding evidence of human settlements and the rudiments of culture 800,000 years ago? That’s before we believe homo sapiens evolved.