Work, Sex and Power

Willie Thompson

Description

This is the history of the world, from the origins of the Cosmos to the present day, seen through three major narratives: work, sex and power - the forces that have done more than any other to shape the world as we see it now.



It expertly explores the foundations of our developing society by showing how these grand themes have recurred throughout the various phases of global history. From communities of Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers, through feudalism and onto the capitalistic machine-civilisation of recent centuries, Willie Thompson takes us on a journey that is fundamentally opposed to mainstream histories which concentrate on monarchs, politicians and military commanders.



At the centre of this book lies the interaction between humans and their environment. By exploring history in this way, it reveals a simple yet powerful materialist understanding of how we got to where we are today, and opens a door to a different reading of our world.
Preface and Acknowledgements

Historical Timeline

Introduction: The Fabric of History

1. Cosmos, Creatures and Consciousness

2. Cooperation, Stone, Bone and Dispersal

3. The Neolithic Transformation and Its Consequences: Settlement, Wealth and Social Differentiation

4. Gender Differentiation, Sex and Kindred

5. Status Differentiation, Hierarchy and Hegemony

6. Exploitation and Violence

7. Ethics, Ambitions, Crime and Punishment

8. The Origins of Belief in the Supernatural and the First Salvation Religions

9. Monotheism

10. Imagined Communities: Signs and Symbols, Identities and Nations

11. A Broad View – The Rhythm of Empire

12. Human Reality in Transformation: Modern Population, Migration and Labour

13. Inhuman Powers: Capitalism, Industry and Their Consequences

14. No Such Thing as a Free Lunch: Trade-Offs, Opportunity Cost and the Dynamic of Unintended Consequences

15. Social Critique

16. Socialism: Its Promise and Paradox

17. Desperately Seeking Significance

Notes

Index

Sujets

• Social History
• HISTORY
• Histoire
• Revolutions
• Military
• Ancient history
• Revolution
• Politics
• Industrial Revolution
• Bronze Age
• Hominini
• World

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 20 février 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 6
• EAN13: 9781783712731
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Work, Sex and Power
Work, Sex and Power
The Forces that Shaped Our History
Willie Thompson
First published 2015 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright © Willie Thompson 2015
The right of Willie Thompson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN   978 0 7453 3341 0   Hardback ISBN   978 0 7453 3340 3   Paperback ISBN   978 1 7837 1272 4   PDF eBook ISBN   978 1 7837 1274 8   Kindle eBook ISBN   978 1 7837 1273 1   EPUB eBook
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data applied for
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin.
10   9   8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1
Typeset by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England Text design by Melanie Patrick Simultaneously printed digitally by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham, UK and Edwards Bros in the United States of America
Contents Preface and Acknowledgements Historical Timeline
  Introduction: The Fabric of History    1 . Cosmos, Creatures and Consciousness    2 . Cooperation, Stone, Bone and Dispersal    3 . The Neolithic Transformation and its Consequences: Settlement, Wealth and Social Differentiation    4 . Gender Differentiation, Sex and Kindred    5 . Status Differentiation, Hierarchy and Hegemony    6 . Exploitation and Violence    7 . Ethics, Ambitions, Crime and Punishment    8 . The Origins of Belief in the Supernatural and the First Salvation Religions    9 . Monotheism 10 . Imagined Communities: Signs and Symbols, Identities and Nations 11 . A Broad View – The Rhythm of Empire 12 . Human Reality in Transformation: Modern Population, Migration and Labour 13 . Inhuman Powers: Capitalism, Industry and their Consequences 14 . No Such Thing as a Free Lunch: Trade-Offs, Opportunity Cost and the Dynamic of Unintended Consequences 15 . Social Critique 16 . Socialism: Its Promise and Paradox 17 . Desperately Seeking Significance
  Notes Index
‘People make their own history, but they do not make it out of whole cloth; they do not make it out of conditions chosen by themselves, but out of such as they find close at hand.’ Marx
‘History is not the realm of happiness.’ Hegel
‘Every document of civilization is also a document of barbarism.’ Walter Benjamin
‘Who, whom?’ Lenin
Preface and Acknowledgements
The structure of this volume is thematic, and consequently historical situations and events which appear in one chapter, such as sex or religion, are on occasion discussed later on from a different angle in another context. Some of the chapters are mostly thematic with examples drawn from a variety of very different historical eras, others have a more chronological slant. My modest intention is to try, in a popular fashion, to examine historical development over an extended period and global scope and make linkages where appropriate to the structures of human interaction in context and situation.
The opening sentence of Michael Mann’s four-volume masterpiece, The Sources of Social Power is: ‘This book is bold and ambitious.’ Attempting to discuss similar themes within a single volume feels more like megalomania, and I am particularly conscious of Flaubert’s remark (also quoted by Mann) that historical writing is ‘like drinking an ocean and pissing a cupful’. Much that could be included has of necessity to be omitted. Nevertheless I think that the project is a worthwhile one and my hope is that it will encourage readers to engage not only with the themes which are addressed here but also the historians referred to in the following pages.
For rendering dates I use the modern forms of Common Era (CE) and Before Common Era (BCE) in place of the older forms still widely used, AD and BC. Occasionally, when relevant in dealing with very long stretches in the past, Before Present (BP) is employed. When quoting from texts written in American English I have for consistency’s sake changed the spelling (apart from titles) into British English.
Bibliographical Note – the historiographical area surveyed by this volume is so broad that an appropriate bibliography would be as long as the volume itself – and would then still be inadequate. The texts that have been of most relevance to this sketch are referenced in the endnotes.
Thanks are due to friends and colleagues who have enlightened me greatly in discussion of these themes, particularly Myra Macdonald who has read the text and made many acute and helpful suggestions on both content and style (errors of fact and interpretation are of course my own). Appreciation is also due not least to my ever helpful and endlessly patient editor at Pluto Press, David Castle.
Willie Thompson May 2014
Historical Timeline
c. 200,000 years before present (BP), Palaeolithic Era The estimated approximate date for the emergence of Homo sapiens in Africa with a stone-using (Palaeolithic) technology, hunter-gatherer economy, and little evidence of representational culture. Other human species (hominins) continued to survive.
c. 60–15 thousand years BP, Palaeolithic Era H. sapiens by the later date had spread through Africa and Eurasia using more developed stone technology and with significant evidence of representational culture. Other human species, principally Neanderthals, continued to exist in a northern hemisphere dominated by glaciation, and interbreeding has been demonstrated. Modern humans penetrated to Australasia.
c. 15–10 thousand years BP, Mesolithic Era In this period the ice retreated (with intermissions) in a context of global warming. The Palaeolithic economy shifted its emphasis from hunting to gathering and exploitation, when available, of shoreline marine resources. A more developed stone technology is termed Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) H. sapiens reached the Americas and other human species disappeared.
c. 10,000 years BP, earlier Neolithic Era and agrarian era; first great technological revolution The ice age ended and the beginnings of agriculture and animal stock rearing made their appearance. The most developed and versatile stone-using (Neolithic) technologies were devised, as were a range of new technologies, especially pottery and weaving. There occurred a big expansion of representational culture and the beginnings of significant social differentiation in more concentrated settlements.
c. 4000 BCE, later Neolithic Era, urbanisation Urban development commenced in Mesopotamia with local rulers and focused on a local god. The process was accompanied by accelerated social stratification. Technology remained predominantly Neolithic. Written scripts were also developed.
c. 3000–1100 BCE, Bronze Age, beginning of written history The growing importance of metal tools and weaponry, principally bronze, is apparent, spreading throughout Eurasia. Social stratification and division of labour developed increasingly together with the first empires and divine monarchies, initially in Egypt and Mesopotamia. Similar but Neolithic monarchies developed in Mesoamerica and the Andean coast. Alphabetic script was devised and spread in western Eurasia.
c. 1000–200 BCE, ‘Iron Age’ A shift to iron-using technology occurred throughout Eurasia accompanied by social, political, and cultural disruption, invasion and collapse of empires and dynasties throughout the continent, to be replaced by iron-technology based successors.
c. 600 BCE–500 CE, Hellenistic Era A succession of agrarian and herding-based empires developed in Eurasia and sub-Saharan Africa with iron-using technology; imperial polities remained the norm. Far-reaching technological and cultural developments advanced, especially in China. ‘Salvation religions’ spread throughout Eurasia, including monotheist ones. Coined money was invented.
c. 500 CE–1500 CE, final phase of dominance of iron-using territorial empires The empires and dynasties of the first centuries of the millennium largely collapse, to be replaced by similar successors. States upholding the rival salvation religions of Christianity and Islam were in almost continuous conflict. Technological and scientific advance continued, mostly in China the Arab empire and the Indian subcontinent, supplying part of the foundation for the subsequent technological breakthrough.
c. 1500 CE-present, globalisation era, second great technological revolution Initial ‘globalisation’ commenced with European societies’ acquisition of the American continents and destruction of native civilisations. Production, communication and technology were all transformed with the shift from natural power sources to ones based on fossil fuels and directed on scientific principles. Western global hegemony was established. These changes were accompanied by unprecedented population growth, global shift from rural to urban predominance, cultural upheavals and greatly enhanced destructiveness of weaponry. New forms of seaborne empires became the norm. In the twentieth century nuclear weaponry threatened universal destruction and environmental dangers were belatedly appreciated.
Introduction: The Fabric of History
The Purpose of this Volume
The ‘fabric of history’ referred to here is a metaphor for the changing range of activities which constitute the human reality along with the world of material artefacts and social institutions which these activities produce. Within a blink of evolutionary time, the species Homo sapiens has transformed the world of inorganic materials, the organic world of plants, animals and other life forms – and especially the world of its own activities and the being of its own existence. It was a development through time within a framework of the three univer