hunted gatherers

Chris Burford cburford at gn.apc.org
Tue Jul 2 17:10:08 PDT 2002


re the humans as prey thread, it is quite plausible that much earlier, over several millions of years of human evolution, humanoids were much more hunted than hunter gatherers.

It is an artefact of 19th century European triumphalism to privilege the particular ascent to that society. Most primate species became extinct. Our own would have had to learn skills of cooperation even more than aggressive dominant skills in order to reach our present glorious position.

It is just worth remembering this argument against reductionist applications of evolutionary psychology, that imply it is natural and inevitable for humans to be aggressive, competitive, and individualistic, and for men secretly always to want to rape women.

Chris Burford



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