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> Civilization emerged around settled agriculture, not to wage war. Arguably this was a movement away from violence, as compared to nomadic tribes constantly co
by zvorygin 6y ago
> Civilization emerged around settled agriculture, not to wage war. Arguably this was a movement away from violence, as compared to nomadic tribes constantly competing over hunting and foraging territories.
Is this even true? I remember when I was reading "Seeing like a State" (or possibly this is from "Against the Grain"), the book would talk about how the first settled civilizations were all violent and oppressive, because nobody wanted to engage in agriculture. Why would you, when anyone could walk into nature where there was an abundance of food and life was much easier.
The original movement towards settled civilization was a violent one, where people were forced to work the land, and would try to escape. Nomadic tribes didn't violently compete with each other as much as settled societies. At least, that was the impression I was under.
- manfredo 6y agoThis not a mainstream view today. Archaeological and anthropological research has overwhelmingly indicated that pre agricultural societies were incredibly violent, moreso than agricultural ones. Pre agricultural societies averaged between 15 and 40% of people dying violent deaths (as in, died at the hands of other humans) as compared to 3-5% in agricultural societies. It drops even further for industrial societies. To put this in perspective, about 1.7 to 1.9% of people died violently in the 20th century. The view that pre agricultural societies were peaceful was not based in evidence, but based in wishful thinking: if civilization corrupted people then we could fix it by undoing this corruption. This was a popular belief around the 1960s and 1970s when there was little to no hard evidence on the behavior of early human societies.