Egalitarian societies

Bird-David (1990) - ‘The Giving environment’

• Nayaka people of lower north-western slopes of Nilgiri Hills in Tamil Nadu

• Look upon the forest as a parent who provides unconditionally and therefore other members of their community as siblings - food is not shared in a calculated fashion

• The forest gives resources to all and all have the right to it - land is not an object to be owned

Lewis (2008) - ‘Managing abundance not scarcity’

• Yaka people of Congo-Brazzaville in 1990’s made no distinction between conservationists and logging companies as both misused the land through viewing it as scarce not abundant

• Immediate return vs delayed return economies

• Nature is abundant and provides to all as long as sharing rules are respected

Lavi, Warren & Rudge (2023) - ‘Rewild your inner hunter-gatherer’

• Hunter-gatherers continue to play a prominent role in contemporary society

• Are believed to be closer to nature/represent our evolutionary past and therefore an ideal form of human nature through ‘rewilding’ ourselves

• Bush-craft, caveman therapy, prepping, fasting

• Neolithic revolution cast as destroying the sacred hunter-gatherer

• Can be detrimental to extant communities - their lifestyle is stereotyped, commodified and feeds into ideas that ignore them are real extant communities with agency who are facing marginalisation

Woodburn (1982) - ‘ Egalitarian societies’

• Immediate return systems characterised by 1.Mobility 2. Choice of who to associate with 3. No dependence on others 4. Relations don’t stress long-term commitments

• Immediate return systems are typically egalitarian and eliminate distinctions between sex, wealth, power etc

• People have equal access to resources and leadership virtually non-existent

• People become detached from property

Widlok (2020) - ‘Hunting and gathering’

• Early accounts of Hunter-gatherer communities originated from European explores and was second hand accounts from bias farmers/herders

• Marshal Stahlins changed the discourse - HG had more leisure time and highlighted the drudgery labour intensive industrialisation brings

• Hunting is rarely utilitarian e.g Cree people of the Hudson bay - animal offers itself to the hunter

• Studying HG ethnographies enriches the spectrum of possible life ways that humans can bring about and allows us to look differently at other cultural traditions