Egalitarianism (egal-i-tar-i-an-ism) - a belief in human equality especially with respect to social, political, and economic affairs.
Hunter gatherer societies are known for having egalitarian societies in which signs of social dominance within their groups are taken care of quickly. In typical hunter gatherer society small groups of men would likely go hunting and return with meat to be evenly distributed amongst their camp, some men and women would gather berries and vegetables, and women might be found making clothing or breads. A quick look at early and twentieth century, hunter gatherer societies is enough to make you question whether or not you live in a TRUE democracy. It is important to note, in researching hunter gatherer societies if you happen to stumble upon information regarding them as violent or flawed, double check that the information is not speaking of a primitive agricultural society.
In twentieth century hunter gatherer societies that were observed and studied, whether they be in Africa, Asia, or South America they had a wealth of similarities. These hunter gatherer societies were almost completely non-directive (no body ordered anyone else around), completely autonomous (functioned without a governing force), they did not follow a feast and famine pattern (they continuously had steady amounts of food), and they were democratic. The non-directive mentality even flowed into child rearing, parents would not boss their children around, these kids would instead learn from the camp as a whole and mostly in a playful manner. Anthropologists agree that these cultures were not just passively egalitarian; they were “fiercely egalitarian” and made absolutely sure that any attempt at social dominance was stopped in its tracks. It is theorized that this was accomplished by ridicule, nurturing their playful nature, and possibly their child rearing methods.
Ridicule would be the first to come into play as, even the elders, ridiculed a member of the camp back to humility if an attempt at dominance was made. The hunter gatherers seemed to have learned much of what they did through playful education that nurtured the playful side of their mentality, the opposite of what we grow up learning in school today. When mammals are observed playing with one another (organized sports in which competition is necessary aside) the stronger of the two will typically self-handicap to allow it to be fun for both participants; this is even observed in monkeys and dogs. Playfulness requires one to set aside aggression and dominance, because of this it is possible that growing up this way helped maintain their egalitarian nature. Another theory is that growing up in a non directive community in which you learned from everyone rather than just your parents and no one bossed you around instilled members with a great level of trust and love for each of the members. It is easy to see how this would prompt a community to act much more like a family.
There is nothing wrong with agriculture, as a matter of fact it is at this point more than likely necessary, but the dawn of agriculture was also the dawn of dominance. As people were able to plant/raise and save food, they were also able to lord it over the others and require things in return. We are a highly evolved culture and can now look back on history and learn from our mistakes, but it sometimes seems impossible to admit when our own dominant ethos is flawed; but one thing is for sure, a culture that relies on inequality is a flawed one.
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Sources:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/201105/how-hunter-gatherers-maintained-their-egalitarian-ways
http://econweb.ucsd.edu/~carsonvs/papers/41.pdf