6. Political Anthropology: Why Communism Worked

Everywhere we look, past and present we see hierarchical societies where some people have more wealth, more power, and more rights than others.  Was this always the state of the human world?  Is hierarchy in our nature?  Are egalitarian societies... Continue Reading →

Everywhere we look, past and present we see hierarchical societies where some people have more wealth, more power, and more rights than others.  Was this always the state of the human world?  Is hierarchy in our nature?  Are egalitarian societies possible for human beings?  If so, under what conditions?   And is freedom compatible with equality?

Suggested readings:

“The causes and scope of political egalitarianism during the Last Glacial” by Doron Schulnitzer et al., 2010 in Biology and Philosophy N° 25

Hierarchy in the Forest, by Christopher Boehm, 1999

The Dobe Ju/’Hoansi, by Richard Lee 1984/2012

”Eating Christmas in the Kalahari”, by Richard Lee, 1969

The Forest People, by Colin Turnbull, 1961

Wayward Servants, by Colin Turnbull, 1965

“Taming Wild-Ass Colts” by Nancy Nienhuis, 2009 in Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, Vol. 25, No 1. pp. 43-64 

Myths of Male Dominance, edited by Eleanor Leacock, 1981

Chimpanzee Politics, by Franz de Waal, 2007

The Hadza Hunter-Gatherers, by Frank Marlowe, 2010

The Foraging Spectrum, by Robert L. Kelly, 2013

”Farewell to the Childhood of Man”, by David Graeber & David Wengrow, 2015 (Note that I vehemently disagree with the thesis of this article, which seems to argue that people just somehow “choose” hierarchy or equality for no particular reasons.  However, it cites interesting examples that I draw from in this episode to illustrate the exact opposite of Graeber’s thesis. Also, David Graeber is always a great read.  I will address the arguments of this article in the next episode and in a bonus Q&A episode.  You can read for yourself in the Schulnitzer article cited above why it’s clear that most people were egalitarian foragers in the palaeolithic).

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