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A piece of research challenges the view that Neolithic societies were egalitarian
Heritage Daily ^ | May 1, 2015 | Heritage Daily

Posted on 05/01/2015 1:33:33 PM PDT by OK Sun

The data obtained by Teresa Fernández-Crespo in seven megalithic graves in La Rioja and Araba-Álava suggest that certain individuals were excluded from burial on the basis of age and sex.

The research Demographic evidence of selective burial in megalithic graves of northern Spain by Teresa Fernández-Crespo and Concepción de la Rúa of the Department of Genetics, Physical Anthropology and Animal Physiology of the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country challenges the widely-held view that societies were egalitarian during the late Neolithic and Chalcolithic ages.

This work, published in the leading Journal of Archaeological Science, comes from Fernández-Crespo’s PhD thesis entitled Antropología y prácticas funerarias en las poblaciones neolíticas finales y calcolíticas de la región natural de La Rioja (Anthropology and funeral practices in late Neolithic and Chalcolithic populations in the natural region of La Rioja).

The data obtained by Teresa Fernández-Crespo in seven megalithic graves in La Rioja and Araba-Álava suggest that certain individuals were excluded from burial on the basis of “criteria relating to age and possibly sex”. So the existence of a funerary recruitment system that marginalised a considerable proportion of the population, according to the UPV/EHU researcher, could be pointing to the fact that the collective use of a shared burial area, which has often been understood as an egalitarian sign of megalithic societies, could in actual fact be masking the privileges of communities that were starting to become hierarchized. . . .

(Excerpt) Read more at heritagedaily.com ...


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: archaeoastronomy; archaeology; chalcolithic; godsgravesglyphs; megaliths; neolithic; science; stoneage
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Stone age people were hierarchical?
1 posted on 05/01/2015 1:33:33 PM PDT by OK Sun
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To: OK Sun

I thought they were all pagans............


2 posted on 05/01/2015 1:34:26 PM PDT by Red Badger (Man builds a ship in a bottle. God builds a universe in the palm of His hand.............)
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To: OK Sun
The data obtained by Teresa Fernández-Crespo in seven megalithic graves in La Rioja and Araba-Álava suggest that certain individuals were excluded from burial on the basis of age and sex.

Yah, maybe because they ate them. I don't see how these "scientists" have enough info to deduce political structure from 40,000 years ago.

This reminds me of the discussions of interbreeding between Cro-Magnons and Neandertals. I think the right word is likely "rape." They didn't just meet at neighborhood mammoth BBQs.

3 posted on 05/01/2015 1:36:24 PM PDT by Pearls Before Swine
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To: OK Sun
a funerary recruitment system that marginalised a considerable proportion of the population

I think they're hinting as racism. They usually are.

4 posted on 05/01/2015 1:37:56 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy ("Victim" -- some people eagerly take on the label because of the many advantages that come with it.)
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To: Pearls Before Swine

lol. meet at bbq. lol

either way, reparations must be paid, to somebody, somehow


5 posted on 05/01/2015 1:48:39 PM PDT by dp0622 (Franky Five Angels: "Look, let's get 'em all -- let's get 'em all now, while we got the muscle.")
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To: OK Sun

Duh, of course they weren’t “egalitarian”. Only a liberal would be stupid enough to think that.

These people lived on the knife’s edge of life, one false move and their tribe was extinct forever. In that situation, the strongest and fittest would naturally be given privileges, in exchange for the benefits they provided to the society.


6 posted on 05/01/2015 1:48:42 PM PDT by Boogieman
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To: OK Sun

Og, do you even patriarchy?


7 posted on 05/01/2015 1:54:07 PM PDT by DaveyB (Live free or die!)
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To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; decimon; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; ...
By "egalitarian" the writers mean the practice of imposing inequality through forced redistribution. Seems like a good Saturday Digest ping topic, a day early. Thanks OK Sun.

8 posted on 05/01/2015 1:54:58 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (What do we want? REGIME CHANGE! When do we want it? NOW!)
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To: OK Sun

“Stone age people were hierarchical?”

Of course they were. All peoples have been (whether they admit it or not).


9 posted on 05/01/2015 2:05:36 PM PDT by vladimir998
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To: SunkenCiv

Thanks for the ping.


10 posted on 05/01/2015 2:05:48 PM PDT by Focault's Pendulum (I live in NJ....' Nuff said!)
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To: Boogieman

That was my question as well. Who ever thought they were egalitarian? Rousseau?


11 posted on 05/01/2015 2:06:26 PM PDT by babble-on
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To: Red Badger
I thought they were all pagans............

Says here they were practicing Chalcolithics ...

12 posted on 05/01/2015 2:07:30 PM PDT by x
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To: OK Sun

Were the sodomites buried face down?


13 posted on 05/01/2015 2:14:33 PM PDT by Resolute Conservative
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To: OK Sun

The people on the left idealize the hunter gather society. They often say that the men and women in these small bands were equal without class structure. It was only when they started to live in cities that the evil class structure developed, and we departed from these ideal origins. I have always thought that this was wrong, but they are very serious about rearranging history to meet a Marxist ideology.


14 posted on 05/01/2015 2:16:45 PM PDT by Essie
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To: Pearls Before Swine
...neighborhood mammoth BBQs.

Now you've done it. I'm going to have to go fix a big lunch.

15 posted on 05/01/2015 2:24:32 PM PDT by TigersEye (STONE COLD ZOMBIE SCOURGE)
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To: OK Sun

16 posted on 05/01/2015 2:27:54 PM PDT by SWAMPSNIPER (The Second Amendment, a Matter of Fact, Not A Matter of Opinion)
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To: OK Sun
Every society is.

There is always someone at the top and always someone at the bottom.

Certain scholars want it to be different but they keep on running into reality.

The guy, or gal, on top will have the best spot by the fire, the choicest piece of meat, the most finely crafted clothing, a trinket or two.

The scholars want to scream that these are just "little" things and that the society is really equal. But they are full of malarkey.

Sadly their obsession tends to spoil what could have been some really excellent work in their field.

17 posted on 05/01/2015 2:30:24 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (Proud Infidel, Gun Nut, Religious Fanatic and Freedom Fiend)
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To: Focault's Pendulum

My pleasure!


18 posted on 05/01/2015 2:32:49 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (What do we want? REGIME CHANGE! When do we want it? NOW!)
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To: Pearls Before Swine

That’s rarely discussed but is a reasonable answer to the genetic data.
Why are there NO Neandertal Y chromosomes or Neandertal mitrochondrial DNA examples in the human population, while the DNA is clearly present?
One answer is that it was selected against, but this is unlikely given the one to three percent Neandertal DNA present in the population. SOMEONE would carry at least one of those if population mixing was going both ways or semi-fair.
An answer could be: Neandertal men saw the stronger neoteny traits in human women (lither bodies, large eyes in a flat face) as attractive and raped them, certainly possible given their greater physical strength. Humans had more variety in tools but were newcomers to the land; some women made it home, carrying a hybrid baby.
Genetic models show that just a few dozen times of this happening very early in the small population of humans who left Africa would account for the genetic distribution of Neandertal DNA.
So what explains the genetics we see, of no Neandertal mitrochondria or Y chromosomes?
The humans knew numbers were small. They killed the sons of Neandertal men, because they didn’t want to raise the rapist’s son. The hybrid daughters they kept, because they needed the breeders, keeping Neandertal DNA in the next generation but only hybrids with human mitrochondria.
In contrast, humans didn’t have a chance with Neandertal women who were far stronger, and/or the few hybrids that occurred that way weren’t cross-fertile or died out with the Neandertals.


19 posted on 05/01/2015 5:00:12 PM PDT by tbw2
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To: SunkenCiv

Excellent definition.


20 posted on 05/01/2015 7:22:44 PM PDT by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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