(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Love is as human as war is. The ideas that violence and inequality are inevitable facts of human nature are just an alibi for the conflicts that today bring us to the brink of our existence. These dominate because this is how elites have protected and enforced their privileges and maintained their power since time immemorial. It seems natural, since scientists have argued that evolution made men competitive and dominant. But the book Why Men? A Human History of Violence and Inequality, brings ample evidence showing the ideological, racist and sexist origins of this claim. This interesting book is unique in more ways than one. It combines the best of a historical thriller, a political pamphlet and a scientific treatise and is a pleasure to read. It presents the history of mankind, from the development of Homo sapiens to the latest events, from a completely new and unexpected perspective.
Before and after class society
The authors, Nancy Lindisfarne, an anthropologist who previously studied and taught at SOAS University of London, and Jonathan Neale, a historian and professional writer, have written this alternative history of human nature with due caution. In order to ensure comprehensibility and reach a wide audience, they have used humor and everyday language, but on the other hand they have preserved the scientific rigor at the highest level. They present their version of human history not as a linear cause-effect flow of events, but through an investigative approach and in individual case studies. They systematically identify the sources and assess their credibility carefully. Where it has been necessary, they have directly addressed the question of method and have been aware that those who speak are part of what they say. In their own words: "All histories and ethnographies are colored by the politics and prejudices of their time" (p. 232).
For more than 200 years we lived in egalitarian societies where men and women were also equal.
The authors carefully analyze what authorities on human evolution have written, and confront these with other available sources, including more contemporary expert writings. Decisive are the new technologies that became part of the new research on human evolution after the 1980s, such as chemical microanalyses, DNA tests and radiocarbon dating, but also the patient fieldwork of archaeologists in the homes of ordinary people. The new knowledge we have gained about the people who lived in the societies before and after class society shows that inequality is not an inevitable part of human nature. Humans have evolved to be cooperative and egalitarian, and for more than 200 years we lived in egalitarian societies where men and women were also equal (p. 000). Only when class societies and socio-economic elites emerged did the difference between men and women also become prominent. Patriarchal dominance and male cults of violence came with class inequality.
Human evolution
The answer to the central question is also to be found between our primate heritage and the character of class society, in the persistent link between economic inequality and inequality between the sexes. The authors also point to two other decisive consequences of the discoveries about human history. One is that man has not forgotten that he is adapted to favor equality. This is evident, the authors argue, in the fact that hierarchies and violent dominance have been challenged and undermined again and again throughout history.
The science of natural selection in Darwin's theory of human evolution is subtly intertwined with a sexist fantasy, racism, class arrogance and imperialism.
The second consequence is related to the first. In order to suppress dissent and secure their privileges, elites have constantly had to reconfigure class relations, including gender inequality. This is the root of human violence. And this is also the role of the conservative ideas about human evolution. They have their origins in traditional and new science, but they function as an ideology that makes unjust power relations 'natural'. The authors provide a thorough analysis of key apologists for violence and inequality, starting with Charles Darwin. They show how the science of natural selection in his theory of human evolution is subtly intertwined with a sexist fantasy, racism, class arrogance and imperialism (p. 313). The analysis also includes more contemporary works, such as The Dawn of Every-
thing by David Graeber and David Wengrow, which is described as the "best-selling apologist for inequality" (p. 313).
Jean d'Arc
Fascinating, thoroughly documented portraits of some of the historical rebels make reading this book a unique adventure. One of them is Jean d'Arc, a French teenage girl from the 1400th century, born during the Hundred Years' War between England and France, after the Black Death epidemics had halved the population, at a time when the class conflict between lords and peasants reigned over much of Europe. Jean was born in a village on the border between the countries controlled by France and England. Her mission was to end the endless war and get the English out of France. The authors present her as a peasant warrior and prophet who won the love of a mass movement (p. 267). They offer a detailed and well-sourced reconstruction of her biography as an example of how transcending identity
binary categories can be a powerful and deliberate challenge to established orders and class hierarchies. They also show how the events in her life were part of a class struggle that unfolded in a struggle over gender categories.
The resistance to violence and war
There are not many scientific works that are written in such a convincing and captivating way. Once you start reading it, you won't be able to put it down. And in addition to teaching us about our history as a species, this alternative history of humanity also opens up new and unexpected perspectives for the future. Lindisfarne and Neale show why the resistance to violence and war was preserved in the past and will most likely be preserved in the future. This enigmatic and exciting evolutionary thriller thus provides an appropriate interpretive framework for recognizing the resistance movements and giving them a voice.
Translated from English by the editor.
