The same lawmakers who voted to send taxpayer funds to private Christian schools are panicking now that Muslim schools are participating in the program
We have hierarchy, always have. Even chimpanzees have a social hierarchy.
Every human society has had a hierarchy of some sort. What changes is the distribution of resources. Historically as societies become more complex social stratification increases and resources become less evenly distributed. Defining complex society is a bit well complex but I can go into the anthropological paradigms currently being used in the field if you want.
Unfortunately you have taken a conversation focused on an anthropological/archaeological break down of human society’s relation to organized religion and tried to match it to your political philosophy. I regret to inform you it does not.
Now that being said what was does not necessitate what must be. I think we have to ask ourselves why as a species every time we developed a complex society we included stratification, religion, and an uneven distribution of resources if we ever want to move past those things. Is the answer truly as simple as “we just hadn’t invented better systems of government yet”? Or is there something about our inherent being that causes us to repeat this pattern independently across multiple unrelated societies?
I don’t have the answers to these, no one does. And they are the subject of much academic debate.
Now moving into the realm of personal opinion. I do agree that we have progressed and can form a much better form of governance. I do however believe that religion was an important factor in the creation of ancient socities and to the eventual progression to us. I do agree though that religion has caused a lot of harm and is not necessary for modern society. But in the times past where we were just beginning to write and raise crops there is an undeniable repeating pattern of religion and its relation to societal structure.
So to sum it up politically and as it applies to modern times I’m with you. But as an archaeologist I have to disagree with your interpretation of the past.
We have hierarchy, always have. Even chimpanzees have a social hierarchy.
Every human society has had a hierarchy of some sort. What changes is the distribution of resources. Historically as societies become more complex social stratification increases and resources become less evenly distributed. Defining complex society is a bit well complex but I can go into the anthropological paradigms currently being used in the field if you want.
Unfortunately you have taken a conversation focused on an anthropological/archaeological break down of human society’s relation to organized religion and tried to match it to your political philosophy. I regret to inform you it does not.
Now that being said what was does not necessitate what must be. I think we have to ask ourselves why as a species every time we developed a complex society we included stratification, religion, and an uneven distribution of resources if we ever want to move past those things. Is the answer truly as simple as “we just hadn’t invented better systems of government yet”? Or is there something about our inherent being that causes us to repeat this pattern independently across multiple unrelated societies?
I don’t have the answers to these, no one does. And they are the subject of much academic debate.
Now moving into the realm of personal opinion. I do agree that we have progressed and can form a much better form of governance. I do however believe that religion was an important factor in the creation of ancient socities and to the eventual progression to us. I do agree though that religion has caused a lot of harm and is not necessary for modern society. But in the times past where we were just beginning to write and raise crops there is an undeniable repeating pattern of religion and its relation to societal structure.
So to sum it up politically and as it applies to modern times I’m with you. But as an archaeologist I have to disagree with your interpretation of the past.