The Human Society

Abstract

Any attempt at studying the evolution of human society will be necessarily incomplete without reverting to the earliest appearance of Homo sapiens sapiens. Data on hunter-gatherers is however so scarce and indirect that it is virtually impossible to describe their society with absolute confidence, but if one accepts the fact that there must be a strong analogy between pre-agricultural human society and groups of surviving hunter-gatherers one is able to obtain a reasonably good idea of the most important characteristics of primitive society. Its most striking feature was probably the virtual absence of any social hierarchy; as they were surrounded by dangers, the hunter-gatherers had to rely on each other for survival and this necessarily discouraged inequality. Another important factor was the lack of differentiation: specialisation was practically non-existent since each person was capable of performing all the simple tasks such as the manufacturing of the necessary tools or the construction of shelters. Everyone, furthermore, participated equally in all the important daily occupations like collecting food, hunting, setting up the camp and educating the children. Especially noteworthy is the egalitarian status of men and women in most hunter-gatherer societies.