Every so often I come across two prevailing beliefs in conversations. One is that humans are innately selfish, prone to violence, and/or nasty. The other is that our hunter-gatherer ancestors often beat each other up to steal scarce resources. The two beliefs are linked. They are both highly debatable, and most likely false.
The common imagery associated with the second of these
beliefs is that of opposing groups of hunter-gatherers coming into contact and,
using clubs, spears, and other weapons, attacking one another. Such imagery
supposes that one group may have just killed a deer, and the other group wishes
to steal the deer for their own use.
A further image of hunter-gatherers is that of the
males going off and taking a woman of another group by force and dragging her
(many images show by the hair) back to his own cave.
These images are palpably untrue.
Yet, these images, and the beliefs themselves, are
likely to be the source of the first belief – that humans are inherently
malicious and horrible creatures - or perhaps stem from that belief themselves.
Over the years these images and beliefs have had their
adherents, sometimes advanced by high profile, and influential people. One of
the most notable was the 17th century English philosopher Thomas
Hobbes. In his book, Leviathan,1 Hobbes curtly and bluntly
summed up the belief that humans are innately unpleasant by stating that the ‘life
of man (is) solitary, poor, nasty, brutal, and short.’
Hobbes’ solution to this condition was to enter into a
social contract by which citizens give up their freedoms to powerful
individuals and/or parliaments in exchange for safety. By expanding upon this
notion Hobbes became known as the father of political philosophy.
Hobbes’ summary is a very bleak assessment of the
nature of humanity, isn’t it?
Yet, I hear and read versions of this assessment
constantly from many people; from esteemed authors to those I share a coffee
with. Our culture seems to have adopted this view uncritically. Perhaps, more
likely, we have simply forgotten how things were before we took to agriculture
in a big way. Daniel Quinn calls this The Great Forgetting; the ‘fact
that before the advent of agriculture and village life, humans had lived in a
profoundly different way.’2
Over the past 10,000 years or so, not only have we
forgotten how things were, but we have also even forgotten that we have
forgotten. So that nowadays we assume that our hunter-gatherer ancestors lived ‘solitary,
poor, nasty, brutal, and short’ lives, because that was the way Hobbes and
others saw the world of their time. This judgment by Hobbes and others has
entered our cultural belief system and worldview, so much so that it goes
unquestioned.
Yet, research by palaeontologists, archaeologists, and
anthropologists challenges the belief. This research shows that our ancestors
roamed over large expanses, yet when they encountered other groups, the contact
was not one of distrust or aggression. More often it was to trade, to
re-acquaint with friends or relatives, to find mates (outside of one’s own
clan), to learn new skills, and to participate in ceremonies and rituals. As
the authors of one review paper claim, hunter-gatherers ‘moved because they
were part of a mobile society that was large, complex, and distributed.’3
Our hunter-gather ancestors did not live in isolated
small groups according to these researchers. Hunter-gather society was complex
and interrelated. This is what we have forgotten.
During Hobbes’ time the research techniques of palaeontologists
and anthropologists were not available to him; consequently, he was unable to
remember life thousands of years before. He most likely assumed that what he
saw of British society of his time was how things had always been. His words
became explanations without evidence. Today, as I hear and see these same
images and beliefs repeated, they sound and look more and more like
justification, rather than simply explanation. If not outright justification,
then at least tolerant credibility.
Today, we try to find ways to overcome aggression,
violence, poverty, and harshness, because we think these arise from our innate
human nature. But, if we have forgotten our state of nature as it was for 95%
of our human existence, then we do not need to find ways to overcome our
nature: we simply need to stop forgetting.
Notes:
1. To give its full title: Leviathan, or the Matter,
Forme, and Power of a Common Wealth, Ecclesiastical and Civil. First
published in 1651. (They were prone to protracted book titles at that time.)
2. Daniel Quinn, Have You Heard of the Great
Forgetting? An excerpt from his book The Story of B. It used to be
on his Ishmael.com website, but with the shift to Ishmael.org it has
disappeared. However, the article is still available on the Films for Action
website - https://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/the-great-forgetting/ accessed 16 October 2024
3. Cecilia Padilla-Iglesias, Why do hunter-gatherers
refuse to be sedentary? University of Zūrich, March 2024 https://aeon.co/essays/the-hunter-gatherers-of-the-21st-century-who-live-on-the-move accessed 16 October 2024
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