HUMA 1951 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Ethnocentrism, Radical Change, Eleanor Leacock
27 Mar 2018
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Document Summary
Leacock presents archeological and anthropological evidence which shows that indigenous american people lived in egalitarian economic and social societies. There was sexual division of labor but all shared in decision making and childcare. Unequal and stratified societies developed when sharing developed into barter, barter developed into trade and specialization of labor, and these in turn led to individually held wealth and power. Prior to this there were no extremes of wealth or poverty. Inequality of the sexes, parental responsibility rather than group responsibility for children, and confinement of women to the home developed after the development of stratified societies. This process of change challenges the caveman, nature red in tooth and claw" myth that de waal"s work undermines. Early human ancestors were social beings and this was necessary for survival. They lived in communal groups with no one leader and shared what they procured. Early people hunted but did not kill their own species.
