Were Paleolithics egalitarian?

          The question addressed in our classroom was our opinion whether the Paleolithic people were more egalitarian than the later generations when comparing both societies in wealth, status, power, or gender. To be egalitarian is to believe in, and practice the equality of all people—there is no hierarchy of political, economical, nor social aspects within the egalitarian lifestyle. Author Robert Strayer signified the mysterious and elusive nature of this time period by highlighting the lack of consented source material. Historians, Anthropologists, Archeologists, and scholars do not have the privilege of documented data like the later years of written texts; therefore, most of the discoveries and understandings have been widely accepted based on observations, pattern recognition, and educated speculations. There are some who study living societies of gatherer-hunters within the remote regions to collect the first hand knowledge of their ways of life. Admittedly this is not the most conventional source of valid information considering the variations of culture contaminations and evolutions that may have occurred when compared to the people of the past.

          With that in mind, Strayer presented the works of Marjorie Shostak and her interview with a woman named Nisa who practiced the gathering and hunting skills acquired by her ancestors. Nisa’s life was a simplistic one; she was minimalistic in her material possessions, she gathered most of her food while one of her husbands’ would hunt for meat every once in a while, loved her first husband but was not confined to one sexual partner, and she was spiritual but distrusting of her God. Although the modern people would see her as being “poor” because of her choice in lifestyle and the lack of possessions, she was still very happy according to her standards. She was an example of what life could have looked like in the “Stone Age” of commodore and equality. Not much else of the document was of significant value to Strayer’s allegory of the Paleolithic life, but one thing that he mentions that was not covered in Nisa’s memoir is the occurrence of cave paintings. Some of the paintings and sculptures found in caves and burial sites depict various art forms of men with wildlife, some creatures would portray humanlike characteristics, and other symbolisms resembling praiseworthy women. Strayer also mentions discovering fossilized remains of people within the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods—although the research could suggest how some of these people were killed, questions arise as to what they were up to in the first place that got them killed. His last example of these mysterious realms before modern man involves the construction and resourcefulness to the creation of Stonehenge. No matter what approach people begin to ponder about where the materials came from to construct this piece, what the construction was for, or why it was made in the first place, we will never truly know what took place on this island to promote this structure.

          Unless I missed it in the reading, there is no clear indication to me whether Paleolithic people were more egalitarian than the people of today’s world. I would like to believe that they were egalitarian due to the artifacts that portray both men and women to equally important standards, because I feel that if the Homo sapiens in the past had wealth, status, and power, our evolution would have progressed much quicker than it did. I believe they had a better sense of balance with gathering only what they needed, hunting whenever necessary, and not allowing hierarchy to govern people over others as severely as the future kings of the future regions. I had personally felt that monogamy was inherited within our culture as another form of control; most other creatures do not share the same values as man, for their main mission is to multiply to keep their specie prosperous. For us humans, since we are the top of the food chain, we are not confined to the same survival instincts as the lesser animals are and thus we’ve held ourselves to a higher standard of living and self control. I also find it interesting that for a while the women were regarded as the powerful deities since they could bring new life into the world; however, after agriculture began to take place, the roles have switched to the male’s side as being the providers with the harvests. I feel that with the change into the Neolithic era, and how accustomed people grew into losing their instincts of gathering and hunting, they became just as domesticated as their farming and agriculture. This drastic change is the only evidence that I can currently conceive of regarding an egalitarian lifestyle; because as soon as people began to become unequal, the Paleolithic world became a thing of the past.