[lbo-talk] The Tape of Human History

[Carrol Cox]

I've fallen behind on anthropology since I went blind, but I believe
Michael's final point is central to understanding pre-agricultural activity:
" Also, violence between different groups occurs, but as I understand it,
the nature of these conflicts is again much differently structured than in
modern class systems. Conflicts over scarce resources occurs but in foraging
systems, the lower population densities a! and the easy capacity to move
helps to limit these." The Neolithic 'revolution' (even prior to the rise of
"civilization") created 'spots' that (a) were tempting targets of aggression
and (b) could not easily if at all be abandoned. Also, I believe there is
some evidence that _even_ Neanderthals provided for disabled members of a
grouip.

But all that is not of course very relevant to our present condition. They
may be 'debating points' against various bits of nonsense about the
non-existent "human nature," but we are not going to change the future by
"persuading" people in high-school debates.

Carrol

		 	   		  

-----Original Message-----
From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org]
On Behalf Of Michael Yates
Sent: Friday, December 18, 2015 8:35 AM
To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
Subject: [lbo-talk] The Tape of Human History

In foraging gather and hunter societies, the maintenance of egalitarian
relations of production is of critical importance, and groups go to great
lengths to maintain these without violence. See the work of Richard Lee who
studied the !Kung for many years. See especially his famous Christmas story.
This is not to say that violence doesn't occur. It does, but the differences
between these societies and modern ones with respect to violence seem
profound. Of course, we cannot infer what happened tens of thousands of
years ago from what happens in these societies in modern times. But in
leaderless societies without class differences, there would not appear to be
the same sources of violence as in class-based societies. Also, violence
between different groups occurs, but as I understand it, the nature of these
conflicts is again much differently structured than in modern class systems.
Conflicts over scarce resources occurs but in foraging systems, the lower
population densities a!

 nd the easy capacity to move helps to limit these.

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