Thread by @radicalanthro

So #TheDawnOfEverything ch.3 after they trash Africa! Won't get thru this tonite, since Jack 🐇 demanding head rubs. But let's go ...1/

This is about Graeber/Wengrow's model of oscillation between consciously adopted social 'morphologies' -- differing forms of sociopolitical organisation -- shifted by season, applied to the puzzling ostentatious burials of the Upper Pal. This is as far back as they go.

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1st, it's really really refreshing for social anthropologists to even deal with human origins (I know they want to call it Dawn but..). People outside anthropology won't know how much social/cultural anthro has simply run scared of all the BIG questions and left them to...

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... evolutionary scientists who aren't well equipped to handle social, political issues. That alone means this book with all its fanfare matters. It's carving out a space.

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That said, the argument in chap.3 just jumps around from one example or bit of evidence to another, a bit like Jack 🐇! Random, it never gives you a theory to think with.

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Wengrow/Graeber did a better job in the 2015 piece 'Farewell to the Childhood of Man', so read that one if you can.

Radical Anthropology likes the oscillation idea -- neat way to reconcile apparent evidence of hierarchy against a general background of h-g
egalitarianism.

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But we want more of an explanation than just
'humans have all always had a carnival parade of political options to pick and choose from like sweeties. So they did!'
But why? just for fun doesn't cut it.

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On p.86, they introduce the guy who could give them the theory -- Christopher Boehm, author of ' Hierarchy in the Forest'. They agree Boehm is a very intelligent evol anthropologist, but proceed to kick him for insisting on h-g egalitarianism. Then they mangle his main idea!

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More in the morning about REVERSE DOMINANCE @davidgraeber and @davidwengrow ...gotta put Jack 🐇 to bed!

@davidgraeber @davidwengrow OK, where were we? Boehm. Here @davidgraeber and @davidwengrow pull a fast one. They praise Boehm for recognising the 'actuarial intelligence' and conscious political reflection of hunter-gatherers. But kick him for STILL reaching the sameoldboring conclusion of egalitarianism 9/

G + W never mention (!) Boehm's model is called 'Reverse dominance'. He's explaining the emergence of collective political consciousness, morality and 'We' intention by a whole group ganging up against any obnoxious, bullying individual, underpinning egalitarianism.

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Boehm draws principally on work by Richard B Lee with the Ju/'hoansi to identify 'reverse dominance' tactics ranging from playful mockery all the way to execution squads. The right wing of evolutionary anthropology (e.g. Richard Wrangham) just LURVE the execution squads..
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while the 'left wing' (people like us in RAg, Richard Lee, Colin Turnbull et al) focus more on the refined techniques of laughter, mimickry and levelling. Because this demonstrates agency of WOMEN. Unaccountably, Boehm's version of reverse dominance leaves out women!
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Reverse dominance is a powerful theory, but it needs to be gendered. It builds on the idea of 'counter-dominance/deep social mind' (Erdal and Whiten, from prev thread) which explained outcomes of egalitarianism in individualistic interactions...

https://twitter.com/radicalanthro/status/1452998549646491650?s=20

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Reverse dominance tho with its aspect of collective consciousness arising in collective action takes us into the realm of ritual, gender and symbolism. RAg h-g researchers have SEEN reverse dominance in action -- rude, joyous women's militant dance forms. Let's have a look!
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Our fave video of the BaYaka Ngoku women's society, sweeping into camp, reversing male gaze, singing out 'Old men's balls are broken! Cunts are best!' while playing merry hell with gender. Grannies show initiates how to wield sugar-cane dildoes...

https://twitter.com/radicalanthro/status/1402862033582936066?s=20

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Turnbull records the reverse gender dominance of the Elima menstrual girls among the Mbuti, who chase hunter lovers thru the forest with whipping sticks. I've seen exactly similar (pic) with Hadza girl Maitoko initiates, in battle with their would-be boyfriends, armed with...
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narichanda sticks (female ritual 'property') and myths of a great matriarch who hunted zebra, tying zebra penises to themself! The theme here is that gender has a reversible relation with sex! Most famously in the Kalahari menarcheal ritual, the Eland Bull dance:
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Picture above notable image from Valiente Noailles' work with G/wi and //Gana women, shows them dancing around the menstrual hut, playfully poking any men who dare come near with 'horns', as they and the girl morph and transform their sex and species...
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What happens when these 'menstrual' women's societies take over, seizing space and time, is a push-pull balancing real egalitarianism. Men's societies come back against them. I recommend this incredible talk by Jerome Lewis on the BaYaka spirit Ejengi
vimeo.com/486403303
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Ejengi, men's spirit, once belonged to women. Ejengi is basically a giant, dancing, raffia penis, and was formerly the women's 'penis'. Men took it to make sure women came to them for sex! This is reverse-reverse dominance or meta reverse dominance, power switching between..
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the secret gender societies.
Our colleague Morna Finnegan analyses this as a 'pendulum of power' swinging to and fro. She says so long as Bodies are in motion, hierarchy cannot flow back. Egalitarian hunter-gatherer are experts in NOT GETTING STUCK

https://twitter.com/radicalanthro/status/1402867683356459008?s=20

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Now let's track back to Graeber/Wengrow here to wrap this thread up! The shared theme is oscillation of forms of power, swinging between egalitarianism and hierarchy. It's also about playful artistic, carnival creations. Pp.114-5, G + W mention the 'monthly' ritual swing ...
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among Central African h-gs. They mention it because we told them! But they didn't delve further. Women's power of fertility and men's hunting success link to menstruation and the moon. These cosmologies are lunar/menstrual. Seasonal effects exist but the moon is paramount.
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Now switch the scene to the mammoth steppe of the Ice Age. Lunar effects exist, but seasonality becomes paramount. As periodicity of the oscillations of power lengthens the problem arises that in the longer time of hierarchy, it has more chance to entrench itself. The period
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the period of uprising and overthrow of dominance may be pushed into retreat, trapped in a corner of time, where it begins to look more like those rituals of rebellion as 'safety valve'. We fully agree with G + W, any ritual uprising at all can recover the spark. But the risk
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the risk of getting stuck increases greatly in a seasonal oscillation compared to the nimbly moving lunar one.
The archaic lunar/menstrual cosmology of reverse dominance will transpose onto seasonal cycles. Dark moon/menses sits with darkest day, winter solstice...
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or to the rains as menstrual period of the sky (e.g Nambiquara, all over Amazon, Andes) and Plains Indians (the Sun dance celebrates the Rains breaking to usher in hunting). Inuit Sedna who hosts the sexual sharing of deep dark winter governs the sea with menstrual taboos.
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So our message to @davidgraeber and @davidwengrow is you've got to start in Africa to understand reverse dominance ritual power. Watch those Bayaka Ngoku women NOT getting stuck with their bodies in motion. Egalitarianism with sugar-cane dildoes doesn't sound boring to me!
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@davidgraeber @davidwengrow oh and if you want more on African women's (non h-g here) rituals of reverse dominance, I'm talking about this on Tuesday at UCL.

https://twitter.com/radicalanthro/status/1453323626061647875?s=20