Pre-historic human societies (Grant Lee)

[Brad DeLong]

>What do we make of such casual brutality? It sounds obscene that 
>someone might be killed for such a minor social problem, but of 
>course in these small desert bands this was no minor problem, it 
>threatened collective existence. Those that took the decision were 
>the elders, though discussion had been widespread - does this equate 
>to the dominance of the elders who merely for the sake of an easy 
>existence would kill this young man? Or was it simply one of the few 
>options open to them - as I think was the case.

I would say that hunter-gatherer bands in which the elders were not 
"brutal" were unlikely to survive--so that it wasn't for the sake of 
an easy existence, but for the sake of any existence at all. Or 
perhaps the right way to say it is that the structure imposed on 
society enforces brutality...

It's hard. On the one hand you don't want to minimize the fact that 
Abaroo does not seem to be realizing her species-being. On the other 
hand, there is a qualitative difference that you don't want to 
minimize between Benalong fulfilling a social role that is part of a 
successful long-term tribal survival strategy and, say, the behavior 
of the Guatemalan army...

Brad DeLong