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A review by cancermoononhigh
Cannibals and Kings: Origins of Cultures by Marvin Harris
4.0
Overall a very interesting book. My review is done in bullet points as to what I found interesting.
-Reproductive pressures predisposed our stone age ancestors to resort to intensification as a response to declining numbers of big game animals caused by climatic changes at the end of the last ice age. Intensification of the hunting and collecting mode of production in turn set the stage for adoption of agriculture, which led in turn to heightened competition among groups, an increase in warfare and the evolution of state.
-Infanticide during the paleolithic period could very well have been as high as 50%. A factor that could have led to the high rise of infanticide was the short lifespan of a paleolithic women to induce abortions.
-Contemporary hunters-collectors dealt with abortions by using numerous plant and animal poisons. Other abortion induced methods were using tight bands wrapped around the abdomen, vigorous massages, extreme cold/hot weather and blows to the abdomen.
-Hunter-collectors are more likely to turn to infanticide and geronticide when in times of stress. Old people that are too weak to contribute generally stay behind and "commit suicide." Infants could have been strangled, drowned, bashed against a rock, exposed to the elements are simply neglected by the mother.
-The fertility of a group is based on the number of women rather than the number of men.
-War and female infanticide are part of the price our stone age ancestors had to pay for regulating their population growth.
-With the rise of state women lost their status - they became wards of their fathers, husbands and brothers.
-After a society has made its commitment to a particular technology and ecological strategy for solving the problem of declining efficiency to may not be possible to do anything about the consequence of an unintelligent choice for a long time ago.
-Infanticide in the 13th and 14th century in England was generally done by death by suffocation. Despite the high rate of female infanticide the population of England continued to increase until the Black Death carried between one fourth to one half of the population.
-The United States birth rate continues to fall while divorces, unmarried unions, childless marriages and homosexuality/marriages are all on the rise.
-Reproductive pressures predisposed our stone age ancestors to resort to intensification as a response to declining numbers of big game animals caused by climatic changes at the end of the last ice age. Intensification of the hunting and collecting mode of production in turn set the stage for adoption of agriculture, which led in turn to heightened competition among groups, an increase in warfare and the evolution of state.
-Infanticide during the paleolithic period could very well have been as high as 50%. A factor that could have led to the high rise of infanticide was the short lifespan of a paleolithic women to induce abortions.
-Contemporary hunters-collectors dealt with abortions by using numerous plant and animal poisons. Other abortion induced methods were using tight bands wrapped around the abdomen, vigorous massages, extreme cold/hot weather and blows to the abdomen.
-Hunter-collectors are more likely to turn to infanticide and geronticide when in times of stress. Old people that are too weak to contribute generally stay behind and "commit suicide." Infants could have been strangled, drowned, bashed against a rock, exposed to the elements are simply neglected by the mother.
-The fertility of a group is based on the number of women rather than the number of men.
-War and female infanticide are part of the price our stone age ancestors had to pay for regulating their population growth.
-With the rise of state women lost their status - they became wards of their fathers, husbands and brothers.
-After a society has made its commitment to a particular technology and ecological strategy for solving the problem of declining efficiency to may not be possible to do anything about the consequence of an unintelligent choice for a long time ago.
-Infanticide in the 13th and 14th century in England was generally done by death by suffocation. Despite the high rate of female infanticide the population of England continued to increase until the Black Death carried between one fourth to one half of the population.
-The United States birth rate continues to fall while divorces, unmarried unions, childless marriages and homosexuality/marriages are all on the rise.