Chapter 1 Documents | Egalitarian

 This blog is in response to the question brought up in class: Was there more egalitarian during the Paleolithic era than there is now. Feel free to comment and make suggestions on the topic. Did I miss anything? Feel free to share that way others who may stop by this blog can view it too and have an easier time creating their response.

Egalitarian

Was there more egalitarian with the Paleolithic societies than there is with modern societies? The Documents section found at the end of Chapter 1 in Ways of the World is definitely a perfect place to look to answer this question. There in fact was plenty of evidence that there was in fact a society that had more egalitarian than we see today. Before we take a look at the chapter we must keep in mind that there was less possessions and valuables back in the day so people were more living their life trying to live other than trying to obtain some kind of status or goal. People didn’t need to work to get a bigger house or obtain a better car, they worked to take care of their family, and to live with what little they had. They didn’t have an interest in valuables and if they did, it had a personal meaning, no a popular value like we have with valuables we own today.

The Chapter begins with a lady named Nisa talks about how she lived a gather-hunter life. Everyone’s loved ones of that culture was seen as equal. Nisa saw her children, her husband, her mother, and her father as equal. When they had died she had the same amount of hurt for all of them. When it came to eating, or hunting, nearby neighbors would share without expecting anything back in return. Normally fellow neighbors had no problem with sharing their food with others. Fairness played a big role in earlier cultures.

Another interesting thing about equality in the past cultures didn’t just apply to food, and perhaps tools. Another thing that may had been considered in a similar way was lovers. Nisa explains how she would have several lovers. One would give her one thing, and the other with give another, neither being more than another. Having affairs was believed to be just something that was given to the people. This didn’t just apply to the girl, but it applied to the man as well. He too would have other lovers.

The Paleolithic societies has shown a great amount of egalitarian during their time. They shared their food, roles and saw everyone as another man or woman, neither better nor worse. They did not see others as greater or did not try to show off as the better hunter or husband. Those were both values that they did not have neither did they find an interest in it. Those who did not share, did not receive from others, but even that was very rare during their time. They were fare and they even shared each other’s arguments. If one person was to be rude to another, there would usually be another person, who was completely not involved in the argument, who would back the other. The fairness and idea of the past was much different from how it is now. There really was no greed or selfishness during their time. 

Andrew Murillo