From: sen@sun18.vlsi.uwaterloo.ca (Subhajit Sen)
Subject: Lifelines From Our Past: Global History By L.S. Stavrianos
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 01:53:34 GMT


                     LIFELINES  FROM OUR   PAST

                       -A NEW GLOBAL HISTORY

  (A highly readable book by global historian L. S.   Stavrianos)
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                 In these turbulent times, when  human  suffering
is   so visible, and yet human-beings are unable to explain their
suffering,unsure of how they came to their  present  predica-
ment and   desperately  seeking  solutions,  global historian
L.S.  Stavrianos offers a book that  illuminates  the  collective
heritage of  humanity  of  solving  its  problems.  If history is
meant to delve into our past to explain our present,  this   book
does   the  job   very  well,  for  it  shows us that our present
period, although one of extraordinary disorder, is  not   without
precedent    after  all.   It  is possible, thinks the author, to
identify "lifelines" which enabled  human  societies  to  survive
over  the  incredible odds they faced in the past: such as an in-
creasing population,   declining   productivity,   deforestation,
soil   erosion  and  so  on.   This book is written in  lucid in-
terpretive historical style and   offers   a mould  or   a   cast
that shows a oneness in the story of humankind from pre-civilized
times to the present  day,  a   mould   that   is  uniquely   the
author's   own.   This is one book, that  I  believe can hold in-
terest  for all people of  the  world,   irrespective   of  their
geographical,   ethnic   and   socio-economic origin since it has
relevance for all. All that is required is an openness of mind.

        The author begins by making the  observation  that  human
-beings   have   been  revolutionary  creatures  of planet Earth.
Their success as a species can be measured by the fact that  they
have  overcome   the traditional evolutionary barrier of adapting
to the environment and can  instead  adapt  the  environment   to
their   own  genes. Another measure of their revolutionary nature
is the innovation  they have shown towards   egalitarian   social
organization.   The   author  then goes on to show that the story
of humans can be broadly categorized into three societies,  over-
lapping but successive:

(1) Kinship (or Paleolithic) Societies

(2) Tributary Societies

(3) Capitalist Societies

Each society existed for a long period of time  since  it  served
the  needs  of  its  people well,at least for some time. However,
changing circumstances, relating to population, natural   habitat
and ecology,  threatened the existance of the society and a radi-
cally new type of society emerged.

Kinship Societies: Humans-beings evolved from their hominoid ori-
gins  into their present form about a hundred thousand years ago.
Since that time,till about 10,000 years ago,  they  roamed  about
the  earth  as  nomadic  bands  of  food-gatherers and hunters in
search of flora and fauna to sustain themselves. Once  the  flora
and  fauna  depleted they would move on to newer territory. These
societies were  marked  by  an  extraordinary  degree  of  social
cooperation, by warm bonds of kinship which tied each band member
to one another, a lifestyle with rich  aesthetic  experience  and
harmony with the environment and most importantly, a highly egal-
itarian social organization. The social cooperation  that  marked
these  societies  was   not  because  of  any  genetic difference
between these people and modern day humans. Rather, it formed the
very  basis for their survival, since they were highly vulnerable
to the elements of nature and the wild animals they preyed  upon.
They were also the first known "Affluent Society" (a reference to
J.K. Gailbraith's book on contemporary  American  society)  since
their  lifestyle  offered  them an enormously rich natural larder
which the author notes  can  only  be  compared  with  the  "full
fridge"  of  the  American household.  A typical working day of a
Bemba or a !Kung tribesman in Southern Africa or a Crow Indian in
Montana  in  North America would consist of long hours of rest or
leisure interspersed with voluntary  or  cooperative  work.   Why
haven't  our  history  books  taught us about them inspite of the
fact that these societies have formed 99% of human  history?  The
author  believes  that  this  is because historians have not been
able to overcome their bias for high cultures and  civilizations.
Why did these societies disappear? Inspite of the fact that these
societies had a built-in pressure for birth control(since  child-
birth  and  rearing  impeded  their  nomadic  mobility), even the
0.001% growth per year they had was enough to increase their  po-
pulation over 100,000 years so much that by about 8,000 B.C. they
had covered almost the entire habitable area of  the  earth  that
could  sustain  their  lifestyle.  The author points out that the
transition from the hunter-gatherer  society to settled  agricul-
tural  society  with  the attendant high productivity that it was
able to sustain eventually   was  a  period  of  enormous  social
upheaval   or   a "revolutionary"  one  as we understand it today.
Those societies that did not undergo  this  revolutionary  change
were eventually obliterated  by Capitalist societies.

Tributary Societies: emerged with the population pressures  which
forced  hunter-gatherers to experiment with agriculture and even-
tually settle into village life. These societies were  marked  by
generally  stable  agrarian communities but also by the advent of
high cultures or "civilizations". Side by side with  quiet  agri-
cultural communities there existed flourishing city centers ruled
by elites who devised an elaborate state apparatus or bureaucracy
to   skim   off   the  surplus  produce  of  the  peasants  as  a
tribute(hence its name) but also offering a measure of  scientfic
and  technological  progress such as invention of writing, record
keeping, time-keeping etc. This period was also marked by techno-
logical  revolutions  (such as irrigation canal systems and agri-
cultural implements such the plough) which resulted  in  enormous
agricultural  productivity  and  led  the  way  for the displaced
peasantry to specialize in arts and crafts.  The peasants  worked
very  hard  as  compared  to their Paleolithic predecessors. They
had no choice in this regard and  accepted  it   since   it   of-
fered  a stable lifestyle that could continue for generations and
afforded them cultural expression through participation  in  vil-
lage  festivals.  This period also gave birth  to the "axial"
religions: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism.Inspite of
the remarkable  technological break-throughs  of   this   society   
towards  increasing   its  food productivity,invention of writing 
and  the  calendar, tributary societies came  to  be  marked 
by technolgical  stagnation. Besides  this, "civilizational" 
features such as serdom or indentured-servitude became quite common.
This  was also  accompanied by a failure of the citizen-elites to 
use their newly invented art of writing to improve the lives of the 
peasantry and was instead used to consolidate  their  unjustified
priveleges.

Capitalist Societies: Capitalist societies emerged in Western Eu-
rope  around  the  15th Century through  social upheavals in that
part of the  world.  These upheavals   allowed   Western   Europe
to  transform  from  a backward,  underdeveloped  region  into  a
socially cohesive,highly   dynamic  and  outward  looking  region
that     resulted  in  its   eventual    global   hegemony.   The
essence  of Capitalism is summed in the  motto:"Profit  or   Per-
ish".   The  profit  motive served  as  an  impetus for  enormous
economic   productivity   coupled     with      self-perpetuating
technological    innovation   and creativity   towards  an   end-
less   spiral  that  continues  to the present day. The societies
where  Capitalism  originated, namely  the Western European coun-
tries, witnessed  an    enormous    amount    of  progress     in
terms   of  economic  productivity,  population growth,  arts and
literature  and  science and technology.   The   process   became
self-perpetuating  since  successive  waves  of   peasant   popu-
lations got  uprooted  from their farms to  migrate   to   cities
and   work  in  factories.   This uprooting   occurred    because
of    the  monetarization   of  agriculture,the   emergence    of
a    powerful   merchant/business  class  and  the   creation  of
joint  stock  companies. The author shows that the  process  con-
tinues to the present day except that the scale is global now.

Whereas capitalism can  be  seen  as  an  extremely  dynamic  and
creative process, it has also been enormously destructive, summed
up by the words: "Creative Destruction". The destructive side  of
capitalism is evident in:

(1) the decimation of entire populations among  the  remnants  of
Kinship  societies:the  indigenous  or  aboriginal  people of the
Americas and Australian subcontinent,the enslavement and    death
of  hundreds of millions of Africans and later the use of coolies
from South Asia which started with the rise of  Commercial  Capi-
talism.

(2) the uprooting of the peasantry in the entire Third World  and
its  migration  into  towns  and  cities resulting in the chronic
unemployment, poverty and the resulting violence.   This  process
started  with  Industrial Capitalism during the age of European
expansion and  imperialism to be only accentuated with the rise
of  High  Tech capitalism and "neo-imperialism" since World War
II with  the  steady integration of the Third World into  an  in-
tegrated global market economy.

(3) the degradation of the entire planetary eco-system with  ram-
ifications for possibly catastrophic climatic changes.

(4) the increasing violence of wars due to the increasing deadli-
ness  of high-tech weaponry and the potentially "geocidal" nature
of global conflicts such as the World Wars.

(5) the chronic illnesses related to stress such  as  depression,
mania, anxiety and  heart-disease to be commonly found in advanc-
ed industrial societies of the developed world.


The author then goes on to show that humanity is now at a  cross-
road.  It has demonstrated its potential to restore the proverbi-
al full larder of Kinship societies through revolutionary techno-
logical breakthroughs.The present problem now is not one of productivi-
ty, since increasing productivity is not translating into  egali-
tarian  consumption. The evidence for this lies in the declining
"middle-class-edness" and creeping Third-World-like conditions  in
the  cities  of the First or developed world as factories close
down here and open up in regions with  cheap labour. The problem, 
the author seems to suggest,is how to develop more egalitarian mechan-
isms  of   social-organization  and social cooperation that   tie
the  survival  of one member to that of  another  and  which  yet
preserve  the   technological   innovativeness  and   creative
potential  witnessed in Capitalist societies.  The  urge  towards
egalitarianism  is  manifest  in  the  socialist  movements of
Eastern/Western Europe and U.S.S.R and continue to  this  day  in
the   form  of  diverse  religious   but  essentially  social-
revolutionary movements  such   as  the  Islamic   fundamentalist
movement in  the Middle East and the Liberation Theological move-
ments  in Central America.  These movements have not been easy to
sustain  given the "inexperience of youth" and the hostility that
they face  from  the leaders  of  Capitalist  societies  as well as  
the priveleged elites  within their own  societies.  But   the 
birthpangs of new societies is quite evident given  the  fact  
that the very existence of the peasantry of tributary societies is 
now in question.Inspite of the  mind-boggling  scale  of   des-
truction   in   our essentially Capitalist  world, the author ar-
gues that there is the potential, at  least in  theory,  of   not
only   solving    mankind's    basic  problems   but much more: a
sense of happiness and fulfillment in life.

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["Lifelines  From Our Past: A New Global History" is published by
Pantheon Books, New York.]