Is the primary mechanism by which stateless societies cooperate to prevent unequal distributions of power really just to suppress the innovators?
I’ve seen it used as an example before. I think the reasons are:
a) this book is popular?
b) It’s interesting because it’s a striking approach. I think it gets mentioned because of the difference, not necessarily the prevalence.
c) Or perhaps that society is closer to us in time, or lasted longer and is easier to study?
d) Maybe its design perhaps helps it last, and maintain stability, at the cost of being a worse approach:
These socio-political arrangements caused great frustration to British attempts to incorporate the population into Colonial Nigeria and establish an administration on the lower Benue. The strategy of indirect rule, which the British felt to be highly successful in regards to ruling over the Hausa and Fulani populations in Northern Nigeria, was ineffective in a segmentary society like the Tiv. Colonial officers tried various approaches to administration, such as putting the Tiv under the control of the nearby Jukun, and trying to exert control through the councils of elders (“Jir Tamen”); these met with little success.
I don’t know, frankly. But what I find fascinating is that one finds the tall poppy syndrome in any society. It almost feels like something inherent to human nature. Does it mean that there’s something adaptive about it? And if so, are the societies like Tiv just those that that managed to take the full advantage of that potential?
Is the primary mechanism by which stateless societies cooperate to prevent unequal distributions of power really just to suppress the innovators?
I’ve seen it used as an example before. I think the reasons are:
a) this book is popular?
b) It’s interesting because it’s a striking approach. I think it gets mentioned because of the difference, not necessarily the prevalence.
c) Or perhaps that society is closer to us in time, or lasted longer and is easier to study?
d) Maybe its design perhaps helps it last, and maintain stability, at the cost of being a worse approach:
I don’t know, frankly. But what I find fascinating is that one finds the tall poppy syndrome in any society. It almost feels like something inherent to human nature. Does it mean that there’s something adaptive about it? And if so, are the societies like Tiv just those that that managed to take the full advantage of that potential?
is it an instinct present in ‘feral humans’?
No idea. I was just speculating.