On Wed, 30 Apr 1997, brian j. callahan wrote:

> Jay Hanson writes:
> >
> >   A few million years ago, our ancestor Homo Habilis developed
> >a hierarchical social life based on hunting and gathering.
> >Habilis males and females shared meat and produce, dividing
> >jobs by gender:  child care and gathering to females,
> >fighting and hunting to males.  Habilis originated the
> >hunter-gatherer lifestyle that was to last for millions
> >of years until the invention of settled agriculture.
>
> I don't know why you say their social life hierarchical. In fact, I've heard
> anthropologists argue that hunter-gatherer societies were not hierarchical.
> Division of labor by gender or age or anything else does not necessitate
> hierarchy.
>

"Hierarchies" aren't necessarily immoral. *Forcefully* imposed hierarchies
due raise issues regarding there moral legitimacy.

Also from a systems perspective the division of labour is not a hierarchy.
A heirarchy properly refers to the division of decision making. eg. Who
gets to say "man will hunt, woman will take care of children". That
decision can be enforced by brute force or by coercive threats.

Harry