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LOS ANGELES (USA), March 11\u2014 \u201cTo see an agricultural society that existed over a very long time with no evidence of inequality was deeply meaningful to me as a communist,\u201d a comrade said.\u00a0 She was reflecting on having seen the remains of the neolithic community \u00c7atalh\u00f6y\u00fck (in today\u2019s Turkey) that flourished from 7400 to 5900 BCE.<\/p>\n
Our book group was discussing the chapter of The Dawn of Everything that describes \u00c7atalh\u00f6y\u00fck.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne kind of building \u2013 people lived in them,\u201d the comrade continued. \u201cNo government or church or temple buildings of any kind. Just places where people lived the richness of their lives\u2026close together with ladders up to the ceiling and interconnected rooftop communities. No castles or palaces.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had thought that because agriculture created the possibility of surpluses, it inevitably led to class society, a state to enforce it, and a church to justify it, like medieval Europe.\u00a0 But the authors got this right.\u00a0 Agriculture did not make class society inevitable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ernie had summarized the chapter\u2019s main point: \u201cThe move toward agriculture was slow, playful, led by women, and tended toward equality and peace not patriarchy and violence.\u201d\u00a0 The evidence the authors presented includes:<\/p>\n
Studies of human teeth and skeletons at \u00c7atalh\u00f6y\u00fck reveal a basic parity of diet and health for men and women.\u00a0 So does the ritual treatment of male and female bodies in death.<\/p>\n
There is no evidence of central authority in \u00c7atalh\u00f6y\u00fck and not many \u201cexplicit signs of rank.\u201d<\/p>\n
People may have farmed in warm months and hunted in winter months.\u00a0 They practiced flood retreat farming, which requires \u201clittle central management\u201d and has \u201ca built-in resistance to the enclosure and measurement of land.\u201d This lent itself \u201ctoward collective holding of land, or at least flexible systems of field reallocation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evidence from this and other sites indicates that \u201cthe \u2018Agricultural Revolution\u2019 took 3,000 years, much longer than it should have if it had been an inevitable trap. For much of that time people seem to move in and out of it as they deemed practical.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the Neolithic world was not \u201csimple.\u201d\u00a0 The authors argue that \u201cMost of humanity\u2019s greatest scientific discoveries \u2013 the invention of farming, pottery, weaving, metallurgy, systems of maritime navigation, monumental architecture, the classification and indeed domestication of plants and animals, and so on \u2013 were made under precisely those other (Neolithic) sorts of conditions.\u201d\u00a0 Much of it, they assume, must have been done by women.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs that really true?\u201d\u00a0 someone asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d replied Marcia, who has read a lot about the history of science.\u00a0 She recommended Science in History (1954) by the Marxist J.D. Bernal. It\u2019s limited by the traditional \u201cstages\u201d framing of human history and by not having had access to the last half-century\u2019s archaeology and anthropology.\u00a0 But it does treat Neolithic accomplishments as real and important science.<\/p>\n
Eleanor, an anthropologist, offered that, if anything, the authors of The Dawn of Everything overemphasize gender differences in neolithic social roles.\u00a0 They promote a mythical ideal of women that assumes women and men are essentially different in outlook.\u00a0 They take for granted that gendered work roles have always existed.\u00a0 Much recent research contradicts this \u201cdichotomous\u201d (either\/or) thinking.\u00a0 Women were hunters (and cave artists) as well as gatherers, for example.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy step-brother lived in Bali in the late 1960s,\u201d Nina shared.\u00a0 \u201cThere was no hierarchy in his village.\u00a0 Everyone lived in a large dwelling and shared the tasks.\u00a0 They worked in the fields together.\u00a0 There was no pressure to do more or get more.\u00a0 There was no ruler; decisions were made by communal discussion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI realize now,\u201d she concluded, \u201cthat it was an example of how society could be egalitarian and agricultural at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes how you obtain subsistence determine how you organize social structure?\u201d\u00a0 asked the first comrade.\u00a0 \u201cThis is the key question.\u00a0 That\u2019s why \u00c7atalh\u00f6y\u00fck is so important.\u00a0 Agriculture did not necessarily lead to a class system or gender inequality.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis has huge implications.\u00a0 Folks can decide how to live our collective lives. \u201c<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why this book gives me hope,\u201d Ernie concluded.<\/p>\n
More on Sexism here<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0More on racism here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Sexism and Class Society:\u00a0 Don\u2019t Blame Neolithic Farmers. Let\u2019s Choose to Live Our Collective Lives as Communists LOS ANGELES (USA), March 11\u2014 \u201cTo see an agricultural society that existed over a very long time with no evidence of inequality was deeply meaningful to me as a communist,\u201d a comrade said.\u00a0 She was reflecting on having … Continue reading Prehistory Shows: We Can End Sexism and Class Society<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6495,"parent":10126,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-10169","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/icwpredflag.org\/wp\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/icwpredflag.org\/wp\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/icwpredflag.org\/wp\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icwpredflag.org\/wp\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icwpredflag.org\/wp\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10169"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/icwpredflag.org\/wp\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10172,"href":"https:\/\/icwpredflag.org\/wp\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10169\/revisions\/10172"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icwpredflag.org\/wp\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10126"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/icwpredflag.org\/wp\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/icwpredflag.org\/wp\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Front page of this issue<\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"