In my book published by Amazon in 2021-2022, in the discussion of the Neolithic Revolution on page 5 of the Prelude, I claimed that hunter-gatherers were free of hierarchy, and enjoyed equality for all, without favor to a privileged class. I still hold that view. But I also made the claim that there was a division of labor among these groups that today we would describe as sexist: men did the hunting, and women did most everything else. I did not come upon that view on my own. It is apparently a myth held by many for centuries. The myth has been shattered (PLOS-One) Hunter-gatherers were and are probably the last truly free people. Today’s populations of hunter-gatherers, and to some extent pastoralists are threatened by more “civilized” tribes, such as we. Yet I still hold to my own maxim that “All knowledge is provisional.”
There has never been an instance whereby one culture has displaced another without a claim that a more primitive culture, or no culture at all, simply “savages,” is being supplanted by a more “civilized” culture. When I hear such claims, I reach for my metaphorical gun. Each such “more civilized” culture is soon revealed as exploitative both to the human culture being replaced, but to the original flora and fauna. The principle expressed is imperial, confiscating the land that is henceforth called “theirs,” and claiming to improve the lot of those being displaced. It remains that that improvement amounts to destruction of the existing way of life, most frequently in the name of religion. How many priestly claims of knowing the will of God are not eventually usurped by a truer knowledge of God’s needs or wants.