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Plagues of the Mind

by Bruce Thornton

Bruce Thornton trashes the myth of the noble savage. Research suggests that men in all tribal societies dominated the lives of women. Women were abused. They were the first to starve when food was short. Democratic practices were almost non-existent. Power was based on birth, manipulation or physical strength.

Almost all tribes engaged in warfare. More than 90 percent warred constantly or at least once a year. Tribes in low population areas were the exceptions.

Thornton writes that concern for ecosystems almost never occurred anywhere before the 19th century. Many tribes killed as many animals as they could because they thought animals were reincarnated or limitless. John Terbough notes elsewhere that "we humans ate our way through most of the earth's largest birds and mammals long before the invention of gunpowder." About 13,000 years ago, over a period of 300 years, North American hunters eliminated 30 species of large mammals, including camels, mammoths and ground sloths. The only two species weighing over 220 pound to survive were mule deer and black bears. (Moose, bison, elk and grizzly bears are recent land-bridge migrants.)

Rape, torture, genocide and mass murder were common almost everywhere in tribal societies. In some cases, after their own flesh had been hacked off, captives were ordered to eat it.

Disease, famine, slavery, infanticide, forced abortions, ritual mutilation, ritual sacrifice, malnutrition, vitamin deficiencies, and class stratification were prevalent. During the dedication of one temple, the Aztecs ripped out the hearts of 20,000 conquered individuals. Tribes praised and rewarded the rape and robbery of non-tribal members or low status members. Ten to 30 years was the median length of life in these good 'ol days.

Religious beliefs were not based on harmony with nature or mother earth worship either. When famine is common, people do not fret about the environment. Lack of numbers and primitive technology were the main limits on environmental harms. Plaques also attacks the intuitionism and environmental beliefs of Al

Gore.

An excellent final chapter points out that the ideas of rights, liberty, dignity, character, and common humanity were invented and spread only by the Western world. As Seymour Drescher puts it, most labor throughout the pre-modern world was done in bondage. "Freedom, not slavery, was the peculiar institution. " I am not a big fan of reading cultural history books because they don't offer much help in solving today's moral problmes, but this is one of the better historical works. Worth skimming.

-- book review article by J.T. Fournier

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