> My whole point was that these judgments are not rational but are, instead,
> social conventions. Unless you're Ted "and" "think" "they" "come" "from"
> "God".
>
> Who cares what people at time x think? What gives time x priority over time
> x - 1 or x + 1?
>
I wasn't asking about that (where your point seems rather obvious.) I was
just curious as to the factual provenance of Engels' (I meant
Engels') historical assertion that "before slavery, warriors simply killed
their captives! And in even more primitive times - they ATE each other!" Was
this sort of thing widely believed by educated people at the time? &c.