There is much more here and the connections to the history of the world go deep in time and space. I trust others more at home in these areas will write and comment on this information. I write to ask questions. Very occasionally they get answered.
The big take away for me from the information presented here is striking. It helps answer why some cultures have a deeply entrenched cycle of abuse. Today in 2022 as we see so many individuals fall deeper into a cycle of abuse by governments, corporations, institutions this seems particularly relevant.
For abusers - whether they are individuals or large groups of people depend on a fundamental agreement to succeed. The targeted, victimized individuals must agree to participate in the arrangement. Whether we call this codependence or the cycle of abuse - they are deeply connected. In essence they reflect the same phenomenon.Psychologists can wax rhapsodic about this as participants in these destructive cycle make up most of their clients.
As we can see from the above information the knowledge from Anthropology is complex. I wouldn’t dare to over distill it here. Within this complexity we can glimpse certain patterns.
These are as follows:
Something profound happened long ago in Europe in the relationship between hunter gathers and the Anatolian Farmers.
Hunter gatherers are exactly that. They don’t grow crops to survive. They hunt animals and gather wild plants to survive.
Hunter gatherers, whether from Ancient Europe, from across the Americas, or across the remainder of the Planet lived this way.
These “civilized” Anatolian Farmers brought a profound weakness into the culture.
They brought physical weakness. The eating of a diet high in grains leads to vast repercussions in human health. From tooth decay, to the rise of diseases like Diabetes. However it goes much further than this.
Growing of grains invites in particular pests, perhaps most importantly that of rats and mice, attracted to grains.
Grains bring the plague - a disease of being crowded into grain growing civilizations. Crowding of rodents, humans, livestock means fleas (which carry the plague). Episodes of plague are recorded in our DNA as shown here from ancient Europe.This Black Death looms large in our human history,
So here we stand with one of the realizations from this science. That grain growing allowed an essential and profound weakening in human society. This was particularly demonstrated in European History. It can be carried forward across the world by subsequent migration.
A huge factor in becoming a farmer is the need for acquisition of new land. This leads to migration, institutionalized violence in land speculation and the acquisition of new resources.
The farmers and land speculators win out in numbers and institutionalized violence. But that is not all.
Another factor arises here one which cinches these historical trends onto a coordinated force. This arises in the ascendancy of the pastoralists.
The pastoralists, healthier because of their consumption of meat and dairy are stronger than the grain eaters.
However both pastoralists and grain growers need to migrate, to obtain new lands and resources.
Here the pastoralists and farmers merged. Civilizations became established based on both survival styles. This supported huge increases in population. The resulting scourges of tremendous environmental damage, of an increase in violence and warfare, of the violent advantages of makes over females - were legendary.
However here again we arrive at another nexus. The young warriors from the forged strength of these primarily Northern European cultures spread out. They encountered Palaeolithic cultures, killed the men, and “mated” with the females. This had far reaching implications.
This requires some understanding of genetics.
We have two kinds of DNA - our DNA in our cell nuclei is one. This Nuclear DNA is passed down from both our mother and father.
Our Mitochondrial DNA represents the second type. It is passed down exclusively from our mothers to both males and females.
Mitochondrial DNA has been traced back to a kind of ancient Uber mother. The “Eve” from which all Mitochondrial DNA is thought to be sourced.
Thus all modern humans carry this DNA from the Paleolithic hunter gatherers. This is a vast subject in and of itself and cannot be treated here.
This Mitochondrial DNA determines much of our essential health.
Preliminary conclusions based on the above
We have an emerging science with vast implications for our understanding of history and the present day. There is more and many of you will glimpse more in the conclusions contained in the above lecture.
However I stop here for now. We can glimpse how a cycle of abuse became entrenched in our cultures. In 2022 we seem entrapped within a cultural matrix which selects for abuse.
This seems to go back to ancient history and appears to point to a potential reason why male dominated patrilineal descent is selected for. The implications here in light of this information are huge.
In Part Two I will try to draw the most relevant conclusions for 2022.
An important point about grains is that they are easy to store and transport. They made it possible to support mobile armies which were then used for conquest. The transition to a grain-based agriculture was driven by this factor long ago.
Very interesting! Looking forward to Part 2.