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@radicalanthro@c.im Mastodon
May 4, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
We strongly support the succinct discussion here by @Anthrofuentes on why determining social roles and legal rights on the basis of gamete production is far too reductive for humans.
Fuentes also stresses that sex and sex differences exist for humans. 1/ scientificamerican.com/article/heres-…
Through great ape evolution, hominin and the vast majority of timespan of human evolution, the reproductive costs borne by the sex which menstruates, gets pregnant, gives birth and breastfeeds have been relatively greater. Great ape males do little to alleviate these female costs
So G + W have section end ch.4, pp. 156-163, on ritual 'property' and the sacred, where property refers not only to things, but to knowledge, secrets, songs, dances... absolutely fine, these were often the most valued 'property' that people had to pay (in some way) to access
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Nov 7, 2021 • 31 tweets • 8 min read
#Theteatimeofeverything vs actual #thedawnofeverything
🧵No.4 on Ch.4, immediate return, James Woodburn, yay-they-agree-on-deep-rooted human aversion to dominance (thanks guys!)🥰 And getting stuck, plus ritual 'property'. Lots here 1/
Not much to argue with in the 1st part. @davidgraeber and @davidwengrow only refer to Upper Pal again, but we'd strongly agree that the #HumanRevolution in Africa, taking us beyond Africa involved transcontinental chains of connection. We've only got more parochial ever since 2/
Oct 29, 2021 • 30 tweets • 9 min read
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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Oct 28, 2021 • 19 tweets • 8 min read
OK Africa! Reading p.81 of #TheDawnOfEverything I'm seized by the impulse to hurl the book across the room -- but it's hefty and would endanger the health and safety of my 🐇Jack! 1/
Very unimpressed by several pages of mumbled excuses for leaving Africa out of this 'new' history of humanity. Saying "cranial remains and the occasional piece of knapped flint...is ..all we have" is just bollux! 2/
Oct 26, 2021 • 12 tweets • 4 min read
Reading #TheDawnofEveryThing, the chapter on Wendat statesman Kandiaronk and his influence in provoking the European Enlightenment is a great story! 1/ journaldumauss.net/?La-sagesse-de…
It teaches us a couple of things. First, the hierarchical 18th.C Europeans started talking about equality and freedom because, in their initial imperialist expansion, they encountered real existing societies which were anarcho-communist and egalitarian. This was NOT a MYTH! 2/
