> >, getting "dolled up" for the upcoming
> > > human sacrifice - all of those things took up some
>
> Those barbaric practices are the specialty of
> Neolithic populations, not
> Paleolithic. Crime within a society is a Neolithic
> phenomenon. It seems like
> hunter gatherers may fight other tribes, but lack
> counterproductive
> behaviours like crime against their fellow
> tribesmen.

Although I meant this as a (apparently) feeble attempt
at humor, your response once again raises the basic
issue of romaticizing the paleolithic
hunter-gatherers. It's not like our species woke up
one day and suddenly realized, "Hey, it's a new era.
We're neolithic farmers now, so let's start building
cities, create a ruling class, and, while we're at it,
start scarificing humans to the gods!" It's just plain
silly to blame everything bad on the neolithic, and
assume everything was perfect during the paleolithic.
I'm sure there must have been some individuals who
attempted to control others in the tribe, and, given
human nature, may have even created rituals (lied) to
secure that control. Once again, no matter how many
remains we can dig up, or how many primitive tribes we
can find and study, we can still only render educated
guesses as to what society was truly like back then.