> A much clearer way to understand social relations is not
> morality, but obligation. In anthropological terms this fits
> within kinship systems of organization, (division of labor)
> to reproduce the society. Genders and age peer groups
> have their obligations of work and contribute to reproduction
> of the society via their particular variation on kinship
> obligations.
In my understanding, obligations that are not legally enforced, are *moral* obligations. So if we talk obligation, aren't we talking morality under a different name?
It seems to me that the foundation of social life is its material reproduction, which from the get-go required cooperative labor. But the reason people cooperated had to be at first quasi-instinctual, not moral, not conscious, not rationalized. Now how could conceivably those earlier societies enforce labor cooperation without a state apparatus, reasonably legit organized violence, etc., and even without a fully developed moral code (necessarily under a mystical or religious cloak to scare the hell out of people who got out of line, because people getting out of line could mean the collapse of the entire community)?
Well, you either cooperated, or there was no social life -- and human life at all to reproduce and speak of. You just did. The fact that you *owed* (in the sense of causation, not in the sense of obligation) your life to others did not mean that you had to feel a conscious sense of obligation, face a conscious moral dilemma about helping others "in exchange" or else be shamed or whatever. Morality entails choice, degrees of freedom. When people do things hand-to-mouth, the morality aspect ought to be very thin. Unless you have been socialized one way or another, and bring that along to a brink-of-collapse situation.
Again, I'm sorry I sent the post like that. I had a little time to work on it so I opened it and hit Send. Gmail gives you a few-seconds chance to undo (something that has saved my face a couple of times), but this time I had a Bamboo Tablet connected, and I stupidly tried to undo using the pen rather than the regular pad -- the pen could act on the screen as a regular mouse (except inside of a "Bamboo Paper" area, unless you turn on another thingy... Anyway. The first part is a bit more polished. The portions below will sound rather cryptic unless you closely read the book.