ABCNEWS.com: Did Meat Eating Help Shape Society?

[Guest guest]

We are first of all primates and animals. Our digestive tracts seem to be

ominivorian.

When we have lived in a harsh environment we eat anything we can get our

hands on

that we can digest out of the biological imperitives for the organism to

survive. I think this has alot to do with why meat-eating came to be;

whether or not

our particular form of primate started off eating mostly plants and nuts in

friendly lush environments; or were eating meat from the get go.

 

Our current society although technologically advanced is still brutal, cold,

and by and large vicious in

our day to day lifestyles. There is no harmony in our socio-economic

religion (this sect of 'capitalism' we currently

practice and worship with our life's energy). It is based on force,

domination and coercion.

We brutalize each other daily in our jobs; it's been part of this society

from it's inception and was part of

the society's the immigrants who came here and murdered all the indigenous

people were from.

We treat each other as capital goods the same way we treat the animals we

slaughter and consume.

It's all part of the same hideous system.

 

Until enough of us speak up and pass the word around to the people around us

" continuously " that our

whole lifestyle is brutal and abusive; and get people to understand that a

cooperative socio-economic-legal

system is the only thing that will reduce the misery we currently live

under; our society is not going to stop

treating animals the way it currently does.

 

Under our longterm code of 'ethics' we are ourselves just 'meat' in this

culture.

Our whole system of ethics has to be exposed as what it is;

absurd/arbitrary/abusive/inhumane and stupid.

 

We are part of the problem..... Even those of us who are vegetarian/vegans,

because we are this stupid and brutal system.

It doesn't exist except that we allow it and give our life's energy to it.

 

 

ronni

 

 

 

-

" simone spearman " <pohevol

 

Thursday, March 21, 2002 2:16 PM

[sFBAVeg] Re: ABCNEWS.com: Did Meat Eating Help Shape Society?

 

 

> For those interested, this sci/tech piece on ABCNEWS.com is not a good

> example of recent scholarship in archaeology. It's sad that the general

> public would see this snapshot of one man's weak theory.

>

> Michael Alvard is making a big assumption based on *his* observations of

one

> isolated group of people.

>

> Culture, organized society, teamwork and cooperation were not developed or

> created by males who hunted. Both females *and* males created culture by

> doing what they did best: making and gestating infants, birthing and

nursing

> infants, raising the infants to maturity, gathering plant foods, finding

> water and safe places to sleep, and protecting and defending individuals,

> homes, and the group.

>

> It has been proven time and time again that the first humans ate an almost

> exclusively herbivorous diet. On almost all continents, the

archaeological

> record shows that between 80-90% of all calories came from gathering (not

> hunting) and that animal flesh (often that of insects) represented a rare

> and sometimes ceremonial contribution to the diet.

>

> Of course gathering was predominately a female activity (in *some* human

> groups) - and thus in the past many male archaeologists played up and even

> falsified the hunting role of males. Contemporary scholarship (with the

new

> inclusion of female archaeologists) could not continue to ignore the

strong

> evidence suggesting that early societies were " gatherers who sometimes

> hunted " and not " hunter/gatherers " .

>

> Simply put, the first humans relied on gathering, and the creation of

> society or *culture* was not limited to one gender. Most scholarship has

> focused on the role of the mother interacting with her infant and the new

> preference to walk upright - thus freeing hands to 1) carry infant 2)

gather

> fruits, vegetables, roots and 3) signal to others in group.

>

> There is also limited scholarship looking at the role of menstruation

> (measuring time/moon cycles/mother blood) and its role in the creation of

> *culture* and its influence MUCH LATER on the blood rites of males who

> hunted (males would often mimic the female menstrual ceremonies before a

> hunt).

>

> Too bad Stanford University biologist, Paul R. Ehrlich, didn't have a more

> prominent voice in the ABC news piece. He is well-respected and has a

> better understanding of the current archaeological/biological evidence.

> Michael Alvard's theory doesn't hold up to scrutiny.

>

>

>

>

> > grinnysmom

> > Thu, 21 Mar 2002 08:52:58 -0800 (PST)

> >

> > [sFBAVeg] ABCNEWS.com: Did Meat Eating Help Shape Society?

> >

> > I thought you might find this story interesting.

> >

> > Did Meat Eating Help Shape Society?

> > http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DyeHard/dyehard.html

>

>

 

 

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