Gregory's Server@Radical_EgoCom Humans are hypersocial *because* of our selfish genes, plus the mental "memetic" hack of imagined communities. (Graeber and some other David argue that imagined communities are not limited to nations and religions, and that they have been around for as long as behaviorally modern humans have.) You are correct that nepotism doesn't entail inequality. However, unequal *clans* + nepotism = reinforced inequality.
|
5 comments
@Radical_EgoCom Indeed :) Memes are a bad model, difficult to apply. But they at least allow us to take historical contingencies into account. If we see a cultural feature, we can investigate the conditions under which that "meme" tends to "evolve." The cultural traits that are universal persist across a wide range of environments, and are quite probably genetic rather than memetic. Change the conditions, change which "memes" are "fit." @DrDanMarshall @DrDanMarshall @Radical_EgoCom One thing I did like about Graeber and the other David's book was the concept of schismogenesis. It introduces a still deterministic but very chaotic "force" into cultural evolution. By contrast, too many anthropologists seem to treat "cultural evolution" as more deterministic than how modern biologists think biological *development* is. Evolution is a messy, chaotic bitch, and people who talk about cultural evolution should keep that in mind. |
@DrDanMarshall
While human behavior can be influenced by both genetic and memetic factors, it's not accurate to attribute our social nature solely to "selfish genes" or "imagined communities." Human sociality is also shaped by historical and material conditions, including economic systems and power dynamics, which can either reinforce or mitigate inequality.