have enslaved the populations they are victorious over. Today, in 2011, the United States has been at war in Iraq and Afghanistan for nine years and is now orchestrating regime change in Egypt, Syria, Yemen, and Libya. It has been a tremendously profitable venture for this government.
Let us now contrast our recent history with the living conditions of pre-agricultural hunter/gatherer societies. First, stone-age societies were usually much smaller in number. There simply were not enough resources in most areas to support populations over a few thousand at most. Rather than remaining in a fixed location, they were often nomadic and many returned to certain habitation sites seasonally. Essentially everyone was afforded the same opportunities in life. Clothing was of animal hide or natural woven fibers. Tools were made of plant or stone and little else. Although there might be optimal locations for obtaining obsidian, for example, to craft razor sharp tools or weapons, these locations were known and often available to anyone in their society or could be obtained through trade with other groups. Likewise, the best plants for harvesting fibers might grow in a specific location, or the best type trees for making strong spear shafts or axe handles, or light weight straight arrow shafts were known. Hunter/gathering societies also had abundant leisure time. There is a common misconception among our current population that Stone Age humans were in constant battle against nature. That life was cruel, brutal, and short. In reality, cultural anthropologists who have studied these types of societies in the recent past have observed that most of these peoples spend a very small amount of their time actually working to survive. Two or three hours a day, on the average, is all that it takes. The remaining hours of each day are spent relaxing, talking, singing, painting, carving, weaving, raising children and the like.
This was, in my opinion, what the Bible refers to as the “Garden of Eden.”Only after humans gained the “fruit of knowledge” and learned of seeds, crops, processing food, animal husbandry, fertilization, irrigation, planting and harvesting cycles, breeding and selection of plants and animals, and fighting, were they banned from their previous carefree existence as hunter/gatherers.
Archaeological evidence reveals that ancient peoples of the Paleolithic era (6.2 million years ago to about 12,000 years ago) were as healthy as those in the Neolithic era (12,000 years ago to present), with the exception of those Neolithic humans who consumed very high amounts of carbohydrates, or the elite who consumed significantly more of these pleasing and addictive foods and showed many disease-related abnormalities in their skeletal remains. In fact, in heavily agricultural societies of the Neolithic, mean height at maturity declined by an average of 4 to 6 inches, presumably due to the high levels of phytates (a chemical compound in grains) in the diet which binds with calcium and other minerals in the digestive tract, making them unable to be absorbed into the bloodstream and utilized by the body. [Source:Angel, Lawrence J. (1984) "Health as a crucial factor in the changes from hunting to developed farming in the eastern Mediterranean." In: Cohen, Mark N.; Armelagos, George J. (eds.) (1984) Paleopathology at the Origins of Agriculture(proceedings of a conference held in 1982). Orlando: Academic Press. (pp. 51-73)]
Tooth decay, for example, was almost unheard of until after the reliance of high carbohydrate grains as a food staple. Even recent medical records show a dramatic increase in heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity in hunter/gatherers who adopt “Western” diets. A recent study in Australia shows that Aborigines who eat Western diets and develop diabetes often recover full health when restored to their hunter/gatherer diet. Our current cultural norms and the diet that we have adopted is at odds with our evolutionary nature.
With the rise of permanent settlements and the adoption of full-time agriculture and animal domestication, the number of hours spent toiling for ones existence increased considerably. During harvest season, for example, people would need to arise before dawn to utilize the cooler hours of the day and then rest and eat during the hottest part of the day. They would then resume work until as late as possible in the evening, with their hours extended into the night during a “harvest moon” before eating again. This gave rise to our custom of eating three meals per day, opposed to the “eat it as you find it” practice of the gatherers, who had no reason to “wait until dinner time” before eating insects, nuts, fruits or roots. With agriculture came an increase in the number of work hours per day, but also the benefit of a large store of food. This enabled the rise of “occupations” of some citizens and specialization of labor. There was now opportunity for people to have occupations other than food provider. As cultures developed through time some members would focus their time on producing clothing, buildings, pottery, arts and jewelry or war. This also set the stage for the emergence of hierarchies within society and the specializations of religion and government. As societies grew in size, laws were crafted that would restrict peoples speech and activities. For the first time in human history punishments were inflicted on certain members of society that broke these rules of religious or governmental origin.
At this stage in our cultural evolution it became necessary to keep track of our resources. At first crude tallies were kept of the quantities of food harvested and stored. As the sums of harvests increased over time different symbols needed to be used to signify successfully larger harvests of plants and animals. As settlements increased in number, size, and complexity, new forms of pictographs were employed to provide greater detail to record keeping. Undoubtedly some citizens were afforded a greater or lesser share of the take based on their contributions of effort or social status. Finally, written languages became complex enough to record historical events such as family or social histories, battles over resources or religious beliefs that consumed the imaginations of our forbearers. It is of little surprise that the majority of the most ancient texts in many cultures do, in fact, record such events. As social hierarchies were established within groups, as inevitably happens among animals, some more dominant individuals who achieved higher status became farther and farther removed from the drudgeries of menial labor in the fields and became the alpha male or females of their populations. Essentially, this was the dawn of taxation.
Initially, taxation of the populations by the elite was undoubtedly in the form of containers of grain, animals from their herds and the like. Those unable to pay their taxes with goods would pay with labor for their overlords. As those victorious in war, who could “snowball” their winnings by amassing ever larger armies and supplies from those they conquered. So could the leaders of populations cement their socially dominant positions by acquiring ever increasing assets and use those to ensure the allegiance of their subordinate minions to quell any dissent among the populations they controlled, eventually creating the rise of oligarchies. Individuals who did not surrender taxes would be subject to whatever “justice” their rulers might deem a fitting example to the citizenry including increased taxation, forced labor, physical punishment, incarceration, torture, or death. In Winston Churchill’s own words: “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Granted, civilization has afforded humans with incredible advances in learning, science, and technology. However, it has also created an environment where those in the elite classes have the all consuming power over their fellow humans, giving these few the power to control the occupation, mating, health, safety, freedom and life or death of their citizenry at a whim. Repeatedly throughout history this absolute power over others led to unimaginably cruel tyranny. In civilizations march through time the stranglehold of the ruling class over the masses has been enhanced with advances in technology. As countries have grown in size and resources, the power wielding elite has become ever more adept at manipulating the masses through propaganda that has grown in sophistication to the point of virtual mass media mind control. It is my expert opinion that those who today control the monetary systems of the world, which is coalescing into a single entity, are using elaborate methods via the mass media to dumb down the U.S. population, shackle them into perpetual debt, and rob them of their tremendous human potential.
The “Natural” Human
Let us now regress in time from our Orwellian present and re-examine the type of social structure our ancient ancestors existed in. Even the deepest roots of human prehistory millions of years before our primitive ancestors were compelled to leave the safety of the trees of Central Africa and hobble from one patch
