Search citation statements
Paper Sections
Citation Types
Year Published
Publication Types
Relationship
Authors
Journals
‘The world of hunter-gatherers […] was one of bold social experiments’ say Graeber and Wengrow, ‘a carnival parade of political forms’. But did the boldest social experiments of our ancestors – language and symbolic culture – constrain these possibilities? Aspects of our anatomy, psychology and cognition that were necessary preadaptations to language – cooperative eyes, intersubjectivity, large brains, a ratchet effect of cultural accumulation – required stable sociopolitical contexts of significant egalitarianism to evolve among our Middle Pleistocene ancestors. This implies political strategies for minimising and periodically nullifying dominance relations, through dynamics of day-to-day individualistic counter-dominance with occasional displays of collective reverse dominance. Because of the very high costs for mothers who had to provide high-quality nutrition and reliable allocare for large-brained babies, the most telling aspect of this would be gender resistance, establishing gender egalitarianism. Middle Pleistocene populations with more hierarchical tendencies were least likely to have become language-speaking, larger-brained ancestors of Homo sapiens .
‘The world of hunter-gatherers […] was one of bold social experiments’ say Graeber and Wengrow, ‘a carnival parade of political forms’. But did the boldest social experiments of our ancestors – language and symbolic culture – constrain these possibilities? Aspects of our anatomy, psychology and cognition that were necessary preadaptations to language – cooperative eyes, intersubjectivity, large brains, a ratchet effect of cultural accumulation – required stable sociopolitical contexts of significant egalitarianism to evolve among our Middle Pleistocene ancestors. This implies political strategies for minimising and periodically nullifying dominance relations, through dynamics of day-to-day individualistic counter-dominance with occasional displays of collective reverse dominance. Because of the very high costs for mothers who had to provide high-quality nutrition and reliable allocare for large-brained babies, the most telling aspect of this would be gender resistance, establishing gender egalitarianism. Middle Pleistocene populations with more hierarchical tendencies were least likely to have become language-speaking, larger-brained ancestors of Homo sapiens .
The Dawn of Everything argues that human political arrangements got stuck when divine kings and other patriarchal despots began to confuse paternal care with coercive control. Drawing on insights provided by an Amazonian myth, this article argues that the decisive changes occurred much earlier than Graeber and Wengrow suppose. Gender politics got stuck when patriarchal forms of marriage and residence took over, disconnecting women from their former freedom to choose where to live – a freedom in turn linked with the periodicity of the moon.
The theme of primordial androgyny is fundamental to male initiation rites and related myths in both Melanesia and Amazonia. The same theme also plays a central role in Australian and African hunter-gatherer rites and myths. Following Chris Knight’s treatment of these myths and rites, along with the model developed by him, Camilla Power and Ian Watts for the origins of human culture, this article argues that primordial androgyny – along with the related themes of the differentiation of primordial wholeness and the opening up of a sealed container or womb – are fundamental to male endeavours in Melanesian, Amazonian and Australian cultures to appropriate the powers of the womb and thereby undermine the egalitarian social system that these powers once supported. Even in their most abstract cosmological manifestations, these themes can be related to the basic ritual acts of male menstruation in these societies. However, amongst African hunter-gatherer societies, the social and religious functions of these themes are dramatically different, reflecting social structures in which attempts to build a gender hierarchy are constantly countered by egalitarian cultural institutions. Following an argument variously elaborated by James Woodburn and Camilla Power, I conclude by suggesting that the myths of egalitarian hunter-gatherer societies such as the Bushmen, who have no authoritarian religious structures, should be analysed in terms of an ongoing interaction between authoritarian and egalitarian cultural forces – that mythic motifs that in Amazonia and Australia underpin male authority are also present in Bushman culture but there they inform institutions that sustain egalitarianism.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
customersupport@researchsolutions.com
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.