Thursday, March 12, 2020

Prejudices and discrimination in historical classification of human evolution

The stone age
The evolutionary classifications of human societies are tinged with essential ideological discrimination. Cultures based on the work of stone are particularly despised. In the common language, the "Age of the Stone" is a time when human beings were much less competent, efficient and intelligent. The Age of the Stone is the "paradigm" of intellectual backwardness. However, from the moment that human beings were formed with their current characteristics, several tens of thousands of years ago (50,000 or perhaps more), human (physiological) capacities have not changed substantially. There were, yes, changes at the level of cultures. The societies that used the stone as a main or accessory tool developed appropriate technologies according to the characteristics of the stone material and their needs. Carved stone cultures such as, for example, the European Solutrean and the Clovis industry in America, have been considered as highly sophisticated intellectual expressions by experts who have recently devoted themselves to studying them. Bruce Bradley points out, a specialist in the technology of carved stone of American nationality: "It is not simply a matter of breaking the stone ... after the initial lacquering of a spearhead, there comes a stage in which there are practically unlimited possibilities for continue ... after thirty years of intense practice, I am still at the level of a mediocre Clovis artisan ... this is as difficult and complex as a game of chess. " Douglas Preston, who conducted journalistic research on the subject for "The New Yorker," stated: "It was a revelation to see that the making of a Clovis tip was primarily an intellectual process." Now, Clovis points are the oldest in America. After them there were hundreds of diverse industries, in which the stone was carved, polished and sculpted in innumerable ways.All stone cultures are extremely sophisticated.Only ignorance of their methods and technologies can lead to the opposite. The ancient artisans of the stone have left us a wealth of artifacts whose meaning is difficult to know.
We know the practical use of many of them. However, the intellectual path necessary to produce them and the deep ends of their manufactures are still alien to us.
To successfully travel the path of understanding we must begin to look at them with much more respect.
Human beings have modified their forms of social articulation, but at the individual level they have changed little. Modeled by the artificial society of consumption, they are no better than their ancestors or brothers who were educated and live in nature.
They are just different.
From the book "Amerrique,  orphans of paradise", Danilo Antón, Piriguazù Ediciones

No comments:

Post a Comment