(08/11/2020) Anthropology describes the observed range of human variation, as well as constants in human life. It therefore informs an understanding of what is possible for a revolution to achieve. Episode #9 examines cross-cultural universals, technological thresholds, and hierarchies. We assess the notions that small, egalitarian societies are such because they consciously subdue the impulse to domination, that there is no fundamental discontinuity between "traditional" and "modern" people, and that traditional societies, also, were shaped by social movements.
Bibliography for episode #9:
Brown, D. E. (1991) Human Universals. McGraw-Hill.
Edgerton, R. B. (1992) Sick Societies: Challenging the Myth of Primitive Harmony. The Free Press.
Graber, D. (2004) Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology. Prickly Paradigm Press.
Konnor, M. (2005) Hunter-gatherer infancy and childhood: The !Kung and others. p. 19-64 in: Hewlett, B. S., & Lamb, M. E., eds. Hunter-Gatherer Childhoods: Evolutionary, Developmental, and Cultural Perspectives. Transaction Publishers.
