@clawfootboy what she is saying is well known anthropology, so basic in fact that it’s difficult to cite a single paper to summarise decades of established research. Your ignorance is akin to a non-doctor expressing incredulity that cigarettes cause cancer and dismissing it as “science fiction” - how could one even explain how wrong you are? You don’t even have the baseline knowledge to engage in a debate. It’s hysterical that you have the nerve to call @susansontag stupid when she’s a student of anthropology and you don’t even know what that is (it’s not called “human studies” you absolute buffoon). But for anyone else who isn’t as much of a dullard as he is, read the citations of this paper.
Shulnitzer et al 2009 - Causes and scope of political egalitarianism during the Last Glacial, Philosophy and Biology, Vol. 25
The spectrum of possible forms of social organization has expanded since the end of the Last Glacial. The onset of the following Holocene geological epoch was marked by the amelioration of the climate to our world’s present generally warm, wetter and more stable conditions. The end of the Last Glacial is also marked by the end of the Palaeolithic and the onset of the Neolithic era (although not simultaneously in every continent). This transition is characterized by technological innovations such as the domestication of animals and plants, and the beginning of agriculture, all of which involved a transition to sedentism. The agricultural, or Neolithic, revolution was followed by several other historical periods and various technological innovations and growing social complexity (Scarre 2005). In this final section, we conclude the paper by way of discussing subsistence changes and population growth, which were involved in the transition from political egalitarianism during the Last Glacial to subsequent political hierarchy.
Sedentary life, subsistence economies, and social organization
The transition to sedentary and semi-sedentary life has had far reaching effects on human subsistence economies which impacted the spectrum of forms of social organization and the frequency and magnitude of hierarchical forms (Price 1995; Scarre 2005). Sedentary economy of food storage allows the accumulation of wealth both in the sense that it is physically possible to gather food in one location for long durations and to manipulate delayed-return subsistence economy and food sharing (Hayden 1995; Testart 1988; Woodburn 1982). The stability of resources enables sedentary life and a whole new mode of competition and costly signaling for status characterized by harvest methods and prime-resource defense, as exemplified in the evolution of hierarchy in Northwest Coast Indian societies (Ames 1981, 1985, 1991, 1994; Bliege Bird and Smith 2005, p. 234). Namely, some individuals are better than others at hunting, gathering, herding,cultivating land and so on, and those differences can translate into economic inequality if the ecological setting is stable enough (Bliege Bird and Smith 2005, pp. 233–235; Hayden 1995).
The reality of economic inequality and social stratification may make leveling mechanisms ineffective and enable some individuals to exploit opportunities that affect the distribution of political power (Cashdan 1980; Hayden 1995). A clear case study for such a pattern is Richard Lee’s study of the fiercely egalitarian and nomadic bushmen, the !Kung San, whose old mechanisms proved inadequate upon the transition to sedentary life in term of subsistence economy and also ‘‘necessitated the emergence of new kinds of political relations, new forms of leadership, and new methods of resolving disputes’’ (Lee 1979, p. 369; see also Shostak 1981, pp. 193–197).
The fact that a whole new spectrum of subsistence economy, which is dependent upon sedentary life, has been a main factor in the eventual emergence of political hierarchy during the Holocene leads to the conclusion that social organization during the Last Glacial was generally politically egalitarian.
Population growth and social organization
Population density is a second central factor that is strongly associated with the formation of political hierarchy. In nomadic groups, small and dispersed groups are necessitated due to limited and unpredictable food and water supplies. It is easier to maintain internal affairs in smaller groups that can split when tensions rise. With the transition to dense sedentary life, however, conflicts become more frequent, more effort is required from group members (especially from food suppliers), and increased degrees of cooperation and coordination are essential (Boehm 1999; Draper 1973; Lee 1979, pp. 354–369; Shostak 1981, p. 194). Conflicts over limited or prime resources (e.g. fishing grounds) may lead to intergroup conflict (see also Smith and Wishnie 2000, p. 505). Hence, increased group size may facilitate the concentration of political power in the hands of individuals who can resolve with authority the inevitable problems of sedentary groups. Population growth may also have the effect of creating direct dependency between those who have and those who do not have resources. When the number of offspring is no longer confined by the constraints of nomadic life, the main limiting factor on population growth becomes food supplies. Given that resources are not always abundant enough to support all group members, and combined with the natural variation in personal skills, food supply by those who have more of it to those who do not have enough can transform from a matter of right (as in nomadic foragers) to a matter of debt, dependency, submission and political hierarchy. Some group members, for example, may be unable to reciprocate ‘‘gifts’’ and hence be driven into lower status and rank (Hayden 1995; Service 1979, p. 18; Shostak 1981, pp. 193–197). Dense populations can also ‘increase possibilities for a division of labor and hence open possibilities for social stratification.
That political hierarchy has been primarily generated by rapid population increase in dense sedentary societies is yet another line of supportive evidence to the conclusion that political hierarchy was unlikely during the Last Glacial. Prior to the end of the Pleistocene the world’s human population was much smaller (estimates of only a few millions) and distributed in low densities over the planet. Evidence of declines in human population densities in the Last Glacial are reflected in genetic research indicating genealogical lineages that were probably the result of population bottlenecks, genetic drift, and gene flow (Behar et al. 2008; Boone 2000; Churchill et al. 2000; Hawks et al. 2007; Klein 2000; Mellars 2006a, b; Morin 2008; Wells 2002). Moreover, recent analyses of Mitochondrial DNA suggest migration rates of between about 300 m to 1,000 m a year from Africa to Australia, and similar estimates of about 1,000 m a year from Beringia to Chile (Forster 2004; Mellars 2006a, b). Similarly, within Africa migration rates towards western Africa are estimated at about 200 m a year (Behar et al. 2008; Forster 2004). Similarly, within Africa migration rates towards western Africa are estimated at about 200 m a year (Behar et al. 2008; Forster 2004). In Upper Paleolithic Europe, analyses of cranial morphology, body and shape stature, and robusticity of limbs also provide indirect evidence on micro-evolutionary trends which disclose a surprising degree of morphological similarity across very distant and diverse regions. This suggests that European populations during the Last Glacial were characterized by a high degree of mobility and contact with each other, resulting in gene flow and cultural exchange (Churchill et al. 2000).
This paper by Jared Diamond also summarises current thinking on agriculture and human development.
As for religion, patriarchy predates organised religion. Patriarchal religion was created to justify existing hierarchies, not the reverse.
Health and life expectancy decreased with the advent of agriculture due to higher rates of infectious disease, shorter birth intervals and a less diverse diet compared to the hunter gatherer diet. That alone killed thousands of people. Hunter gatherers were and still are attacked by pastoralists and settlers, especially since early farmers were more violent than hunter gatherers.
At the end of the day you are a 21 year old male who has a sideblog for gore and porn on Tumblr lecturing someone far more educated than you on topics you don’t understand. What’s particularly offensive about you is how self-aggrandizing and proud you are of your ignorance. You are far from an eminent thinker or insightful in any way, humble yourself. Open a textbook or read some papers before you speak.
