Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches: The Riddles of Culture
The Beginning of Infinity
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In primitive societies, such crises were resolved by the "scapegoating mechanism," in which the community, en masse, turned on an unpremeditated victim. The repression of this collective murder and its repetition in ritual sacrifice then formed the foundations of both religion and the restored social order.
O'Reilly Media • Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World
If a life of foraging is really better than a life of farm labor, why wouldn’t humanity find a path back from agriculture to hunting and gathering? The best guess is that early farm settlements faced a one-way demographic trap. Here is a simple illustration: Suppose that the first generation of farmers got a boost from farming. Instead of eating tw
... See moreJeffrey D. Sachs • The Ages of Globalization: Geography, Technology, and Institutions
Those Native Americans who had been in France, he wrote, … were continually teasing us with the faults and disorders they observed in our towns, as being occasioned by money. There’s no point in trying to remonstrate with them about how useful the distinction of property is for the support of society: they make a joke of anything you say on that ac
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