Anarchism by Ruth Kinna

Anarchism by Ruth Kinna

Author:Ruth Kinna [Kinna, Ruth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781780741277
Publisher: Oneworld Publications


Perlman and Zerzan define primitive society in opposition to civilization. They take a developmental view of the relationship between the two. However, they invert the indicators of development suggested by Kropotkin’s evolutionary system to define changes in the behaviours of primitive peoples in terms of the corrupting influence of domestication rather than the progressive march of civilization. Perlman located these changes in the shift from nomadic ways of life and the emergence of tools as ‘productive forces’. Zerzan’s view is that ‘the wrong turn for humanity was the Agricultural Revolution’. This brought ‘a rise in labor, a decrease in sharing, an increase in violence, a shortening of lifespan’ and alienation ‘from each other, from the natural world, from their bodies’.7

Like Kropotkin and Bookchin, Zerzan draws on mainstream anthropology to support this view, but he uses these studies to describe what the absence of civilization means, rather than to abstract an anarchist ethic from the stateless condition. The contrast he draws between primitivism and civilization is stark. Without exception, Zerzan argues, the peoples in ‘non-agricultural’ society ‘knew no organized violence’. Elsewhere he argues: the ‘violence of primitives – human sacrifice, cannibalism, head-hunting, slavery, etc. – ... was not ended by culture, but in fact commenced with it’. His response to anthropologists who cite the slavery and hierarchy of Northwest Coast Indians as evidence of such violence, is that these fishing people had begun to domesticate nature, taming dogs and growing tobacco as a minor crop.8

One of Zerzan’s concerns is to outline the ways in which primitive peoples relate to their world and to highlight the benefits they derive from this relationship. For example, he suggests that non-agricultural peoples have a much greater sensory awareness than their domesticated counterparts. Bushmen can ‘see four moons of Jupiter with the unaided eye and hear a single engine light plane seventy miles away’. Typically, they rely on their senses – particularly of smell and touch – to interpret the world. In contrast to agricultural peoples, they communicate visually and by sharing experiences. They do not rely on language alone. Zerzan suggests that these skills of perception and communication are reflected in a positive attitude towards time and work. For example, he notes with approval how the Mbuti of southern Africa have little interest in linear time. They believe that ‘by a correct fulfilment of the present, the past and future will take care of themselves’. His more general point is that life in primitive society is ‘in fact largely one of leisure, intimacy with nature, sensual wisdom, sexual equality, and health’. Denying the charge that this image is ‘Rousseauvian [sic] noble savage nonsense’, Zerzan reviews recent academic findings and comments:

Prehistory is now characterized more by intelligence, egalitarianism and sharing, leisure time, a great degree of sexual equality, robusticity and health, with no evidence at all of organized violence ... We’re still living, of course, with the cartoonish images, the caveman pulling the woman into the cave, Neanderthal meaning somebody who is a complete brute and subhuman, and so on.



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