Hey folks, I had too many sources for this episode for the comment word count so I've put them on a google document linked below: drive.google.com/drive/folders/1BP9kZ9y4dtdB0yy-qXrNzWcVjAYCv6-a?usp=sharing
How could someone be so stupid choosing a title for their video? You can see that coherence and study are not the focus of the "historian", what a waste
It's always so amusing to observe all the contortions and euphemisms used by bourgeois archeologists like "increasing inequality" to avoid the same undeniable truth. Thus was the emergence of CLASS SOCIETY, where a small minority of warriors and priests had seized power by violence, and established slavery on the basis of the development of agriculture. (Can't have slaves in hunter gatherer societies. Can't produce sufficient surplus and it's always a bad idea to give hunting weapons to slaves. Slavery can only emerge based on agriculture.) The primary duty of bourgeois archeology and anthropology is to deny the existence of pre-class matriarchal and fratriarchal egalitarian societies, and to obfuscate the emergence and existence of class societies divided into exploiters and exploited. It's never good for the capitalist rulers who pay the salaries of these so-called archaeologists and anthropologists, to expose the historic roots of the present class society. In particular in the case of anthropology it's really dubious that it should be considered a "science" at all given the amount of absolutely dishonest manipulation. It's more akin to some form of alchemy, for hire to the highest bidder.
It's very nice to see Fushanzhuang being mentioned! My dad is from there, and it is nowadays a village of not more than a couple thousand people. Never thought I'd hear it mentioned in any kind of interesting context.
@@HOXHOXHOX don't confuse it with the fringes of the fringes in Vietnam and what does it have to do with being proud of seing his dad village mentionned?
@@HOXHOXHOXyou must've just passed 23:20🤣 "Please check the original message date before you reply. The comment you responded to is 6000 years old. This topic has now been closed." - the moderator
Why not do both?... Actually id likely be distracted from the images on the video. So best to wait but then again the narrations are easily understandable. Either way enjoy! 💯
@@Handles-R-Lame "when I'm off doing chores" means "when I am doing chores", so it will be when doing both! :) I'm guessing an Irish or UK dialect typed that one
One thing I want to point out is that for some illustrations showing the burial of King (leaders) of Liangzhu or Lingjiatan, the king is shown naked with jade ornaments. This is not likely as there are already evidence showing intricate fabrics can be manufactured at that time. The king should be buried in glossy silk or other kind of fabrics with complex patterns that echo with the jade ornaments.
@@LiftandCoa I dunno man, Histocrat dropping a video covering 2000 years of history…..versus looking at some teeth….y’know what…. The video’s better haha
This is amazing! Would be pretty cool if eventually there was a playlist for each of the cradles of civilization, which I’m addition to Mesopotamia and China would include Egypt, the Indus Valley, the Olmec, and the Norte Chico. Would be cool to learn about my Olmec ancestors, though it would probably be best if it were left for last, along with Norte Chico, so by the time you get to it there will be a bit more information known about these relatively poorly understood civilizations.
seriously doubt this guy would put a serious effort into natives of the americas. he seems to lack the sensitivity to appreciate races outside of his own
I was fortunate enough to see one of those "pig dragons" of Hongshan culture in a museum when visiting China. They claimed it to be the "first dragon of China" which simply went over my head. Didn't realize it was that far back in human history
Im really loving this birth of china series! I hope it continues for a long time to come. Curious about 2 main things, A) how much "traditional historiography" will be covered going forward. Im hoping very little personally. I hope/expect this video series to stick purely to the archaeology. And B) how the next video(s) will be divided in terms of years covered. Will this next video cover the pre-erlitou culture or cover it itself? Personally, I think an entire video on the 3000BC-2000BC period is very possible, so I hope it takes that narrower focus. Leave the Erlitou culture for a video further down.
It's wild to think how "small" their world's were. Their entire lives. So simple, yet complicated, the same emotions and what not. But just so much smaller in terms of perspective.
they didn’t know about cells, or atoms, or what lay outside their village, but they knew how to weave and sew and create all sorts of intricate things that have since been lost to time. sure, i know all sorts of trivia about history, but i don’t know how to cultivate the earth.
I've been curious since the last video in this series, but this title makes me even more so. Have you read David Graeber and David Wengrow's 'the dawn of everything: A new history of humanity'? I'd love to get your perspective on it. I found it a fascinating and uplifting read, but I don't really have the background to judge the validity of it's arguments as a law student.
You should have mentioned the identities of each culture, for instance Daxi being associated with the ancestors of the Miao, Dapenkeng being associated with the early Austronesians and Yangshao often associated with the long process of partition into the proto-Tibetics and proto-Sinitics.
Extraordinary contribution to what we currently know about early pre-Chinese culture. Really appreciate the various sources you quote, including Chinese archeologists. I'm always surprised when I start comparing dates between proto-China & the world's other river cultures. I need to remind myself that the climatic conditions in the Far East are NOT conducive to preservation of materials. The Nile Valley & even the land between 2 rivers with their unpredictable flooding are much drier -- bordering on desert. So knowing, for example that Egyptian Dynasties had come & gone long before what could be called "China" existed, or other aspects of the timeline have to be viewed in that context. We'll have a HUGE amount of re-evaluation to do as more evidence arises -- from Paleolithic to some of the well-known eras. Thanks for giving such detail & I'm eager to see what's next.
Once, some guy in Reddit argued that Shang Dynasty was some fishing villages and Xia is imaginary. I'm not Chinese but it it's just so insulting to all of Asia . I didn't know that archaeology can be racist.
@@Seisoks Western archeologists always downplay Chinese civilization, Shang didn't just pop out of nowhere, there had to be a "Xia culture" there before that, some people even claim "Chinese" never existed and were all "northern peoples" from Mongolia/Siberia which is nonsense, it is definitely insulting
@@danielzhang1916 Fyi I'm from ASEAN. Tell me about it, bro. There is some political propaganda bs on going inside the western archaeology school of thought. Like glazing Roman as the center of the world, and blatantly disregarding Indian and Chinese civilizations of the time.
I hope you understand this is not to mock or anything, but I couldn't keep on watching the videos because of the repetitiveness of your voice inflexions :/ once I started hearing the pattern of your sentences I couldn't make sense of the words anymore. I wouldn't have commented but I feel maybe it can be a useful feedback? Thanks for sharing and creating this content!
@@xlr555usa ...or just speak like a normal person would do. It is not the voice but an unreasonable way of emphasizing sentences that is disturbing. One indeed gets the impression that it is just read from a prompter, without reflecting the content while reading...
@@ooOPizzaHeadOoo you're comparing to recent times, we're talking about the course of human history, every noble and royal started off like this, that's the point I was making here, not talking about billionaires
I can download now, it was probably just the video still processing on TH-cam's end. For example it's been a recent trend that videos on some channels have no audio for the first few minutes. I'm not sure if that got fixed or not, haven't been early enough in a while.
One thing I'd like to understand is how the very initial inequality begins in human history. Is it that one farmer has a slightly more productive plot of land or a significantly more productive plot of land? Is it that some families engage in violence against others to secure larger plots of land for themselves? As I understand it, plots tended to both become subdivided for inheritance as well as families growing as large as the plot could support. How then did the initial wealthier farmers manage to have larger plots and less family members per area? Did they simply refuse to subdivide at inheritance or refuse to have more children? What about sedentary foragers who developed inequality, how was that process similar or different? Was it partially a social thing where socially influential people due to charisma, skill or connections were able to extract more gifts and loyalty to amass wealth? There is both the question of what the process of initial accumulation was and also the question of how it was preserved, as in why didn't others through pressure or violence maintain a more equal society in reaction to the threat of another gaining an advantage.
I imagine they were more sophisticated than we would assume. Many of the things they had to do to be successful are more impressive than what a modern person does.
This is essentially unanswerable. Since all people have already natural variation in ability and capacity, to add also that one's own children and relatives are a kind of property and capital in primitive societies insofar as they can perform labour. Also, gratitude in modern sensibilities is nearly non-existent: gift giving and acts of kindness always carried the weight of moral obligation and debt in small tight-knit groups, making "the generous" people sort of wealthy by being able to expect help in the future. This is not even to add religious-shaman minorities, otherwise "worthless", except for service remembrance of past generations and epic poetic recitations, making them prestigious in the group. These don't map well at all with modern quantitative analyses of wealth per capita at all. Good question, but I think it's basically impossible to answer.
@@erlinacobrado7947You are correct. One was "wealthy" in tribal economies by the amount of respect he had by the others in the tribe. Naturally, leadership tended to go hand in hand with wealth in the form of reciprocity.
Indeed. It is poor anthropology to ignore that fact that we are hierarchical beings. It has been the role of higher religion to introduce and press the case for the values of accountability and social responsibility as obligations for those with power. Of course human pagan tendencies keep raising the ugly head of the will power in order to try to corrupt religion for self-serving ends. Hence, demagogues from Robespierre to Hitler to Mao to Trump all promote idolatry.
@@Svevsky cool story, still inequality. Speaking less jokingly, do you not see how these are just inverse views on the same thing? You should not take it as a personal attack, but it's undeniable that the societies examined in this video are showing clearer and clearer signs of having haves and have-nots.
@ahumpierrogue137 True equality is a fairy tale though. Like it or not people aren't equal. So saying a society has inequality isn't really saying anything. They all do and always will.
fantastically high quality video, but please invest in a better mic. a lot of words just fade into nothing and it makes it really hard to follow along! good job tho on everything else
Reasonably sure this is an AI / TTS narrator. Every sentence follows the exact same tonal pattern- low, high until the last word, low- and every single one is in the exact same tones. If you listen at higher speed it's inhumanly uniform.
. some references to possible human/child sacrifices were made and I wonder whether these were not specifically referred to due to accusations of "poor anthropology" - see below for some commentators preferring the term "heirarchy" to "inequality" - although even "slavory/castism" would have been ok for me!!
Just the title suggests you're taking a lot of points from "The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow review - inequality is not the price of civilisation" i hope you are because its a bloody masterpiece of a book.
Millets are many species. They are drought resistant and hardy. Growing in cold, hot climates and probably climates with diurnal temperature variations. They were independently domesticated in different parts of the world. China, Africa and perhaps other locations. Yes, it is still consumed. Gluten free.
@@nobody687 I think it is rather connected to a surplus of food and with that the possibility for individuals to specialize. This started the structuring of society and introduced roles - such as leaders.
@tomsaltner3011 Even hunter gathers have a leader. All groups of humans have leaders. What led to civilization was when someone produced beer in high amounts and set up a place to trade it. That's my theory. It's logical,
Farming makes valuable places and piles of stored energy. These places can be attacked, raided and occupied with the locals enslaved and killed. The enslaved can be put to work on agriculture. This drives the emergence of a warrior class who tend to be male and who tend to take over. If women are used as warriors, the side thauses them will have more warriors at first, but as reproductive rates fall, there are less warriors. He male warriors form alliances with shamens to control the underlings better with fantastic narratives. And so here are today.
the video is well made, but as a Sinologist I always get weird vibes when the word China is used for a political construct that early in history. It plays into the myth of the eternal nation state and is more ideological than historical. I think it would be better to stick to China as a geographical and not political entity
It’s hard to believe that China’s archaeology is better than United States. As a matter of fact the United States archaeology is the laughing stock of the archaeological world. We are still covering up a genocide so we don’t really talk about what’s in the ground. .
Was the title written by US state department? Certainly inequality did not start in China, or better it would be impossible to know but we can guess it started in tbe first human community. Did China have the first human community?
The name makes more sense if you watched the previous video. He is saying that in the context of the more egalitarian culture that this culture supplanted.
No...agriculture has not too much to do with it. When a tribe grows too large and so ruling/solving problems becomes more difficult and time-consuming and demanding different skills, then a 'prime leader/premier/prime-minister/king/chef=sheriff=shariff-chief/boss, etc.. first chosen but soon (the family is used to special treatments and wealth) became a heriditary lucrative job. Working/fighting was no longer needed. 24hours protection was requiered. In no time an 'elite-group' with special treatment and beneficials was established. In my opinion, an automatic irreversable mechanisme. Also...after wars, the captured 'non-humans' served as dispensable slaves. The lowest 'class', the 'dalith's', the deplorables.
The reason for growth might have been 1)fertile population 2)fertile soil and nature 3)an agressive attitude and hunger for wealth and power 4)'sharing' goods and food was not a cherished lifestyle, certainly not with foreigners. Anything changed in our attitude?
@@JuliaZuckerberg possible....we will never know 2hat really halsppened. That is the beauty of it: we all can assume, think, learn, associate... but the truth lies in the faraway past and even then....Who knows exactly what is going on right now on all fronts and behind the scenes? Noone!
We see in written records that often aristocracy formed from warriors. As victorious warriors, these families were honoured with lands and authority, which led to the development of a warrior caste as father passed this warrior expectation onto sons.
@@MackerelCat obvious and logical. Even within animal packs. This is an automatical procedure. But terrible for the great majority, enduring their enslavement under that 'nobility. And we...the deplorables....admire them, obey them, serve them from early in the morning till early in the morning. From being born till death comes to take them away.
The title of this piece, in light of recent years of China bashing, may feed into this bias. Inequality, in this world where most people would have difficulty making sense of things without relativity, is merely the condition of how things are. Imagine in the ancient time, a group of people surviving in the wild, someone wiser understand how to utilize the resources, not only help ensure the group's survival but enable them to thrive, thus not only earning appreciation from the people maybe respect or reverance even. An inequality resulting from such, would it be not natural? Not to mention someone put in more work reaping better results.
18:00 I thought dragons were mythical, but this made me curious so I looked it up. It turns out there is a real animal called a Chinese dragon, it is a local alligator species. It is endangered now, but at that time it would have been common. Look up Chinese alligator to see pictures of the real thing. They get to be about 5 to 7 feet in length and up to 80 to 100 lb. Not mythical after all! No wonder dragons are considered water animals. They are real live alligators. LOL
Doubt it. 1. Chinese alligators are mentioned from 3000 years ago, while the individual buried with the dragon dates to more than 4000 years ago 2. You can’t look at the dragon mosaic and honestly state that it looks like an alligator 3. The earliest chinese settlements started much more north than the Yangtze where the crocodile is from 4. Where do you find that the chinese alligator is called a chinese dragon? Would like to see that source Much more likely, the association is made when people catch an unusual animal (in this case an alligator) and then claim to have caught a “dragon” in order to rake in the big bucks
dragons are mythical. It was probably a totem animal spirit to protect a village or area like those you in native america. some tribes will take over other totems over time and add to their totem, which is probably why the dragon had hybrid features from other animals. and ancient depictions of dragons are very abstract slithe creatures. the current version is mainly from the Ming dynasty where they are potrayed in a very aggressive pose.
Hey folks, I had too many sources for this episode for the comment word count so I've put them on a google document linked below:
drive.google.com/drive/folders/1BP9kZ9y4dtdB0yy-qXrNzWcVjAYCv6-a?usp=sharing
Thank you for listing openly your sources, both outside and in the videos themselves (including for each cited moment with a little footnote number)
Thank you!!!
FINALLY! THANK YOU!
How could someone be so stupid choosing a title for their video? You can see that coherence and study are not the focus of the "historian", what a waste
It's always so amusing to observe all the contortions and euphemisms used by bourgeois archeologists like "increasing inequality" to avoid the same undeniable truth. Thus was the emergence of CLASS SOCIETY, where a small minority of warriors and priests had seized power by violence, and established slavery on the basis of the development of agriculture. (Can't have slaves in hunter gatherer societies. Can't produce sufficient surplus and it's always a bad idea to give hunting weapons to slaves. Slavery can only emerge based on agriculture.)
The primary duty of bourgeois archeology and anthropology is to deny the existence of pre-class matriarchal and fratriarchal egalitarian societies, and to obfuscate the emergence and existence of class societies divided into exploiters and exploited.
It's never good for the capitalist rulers who pay the salaries of these so-called archaeologists and anthropologists, to expose the historic roots of the present class society.
In particular in the case of anthropology it's really dubious that it should be considered a "science" at all given the amount of absolutely dishonest manipulation. It's more akin to some form of alchemy, for hire to the highest bidder.
It's very nice to see Fushanzhuang being mentioned! My dad is from there, and it is nowadays a village of not more than a couple thousand people. Never thought I'd hear it mentioned in any kind of interesting context.
@@HOXHOXHOX don't confuse it with the fringes of the fringes in Vietnam and what does it have to do with being proud of seing his dad village mentionned?
@@HOXHOXHOXyou have to stop racist
@@HOXHOXHOXstop being a silly racist
@@HOXHOXHOX He's sounds several magnitudes more honorable and educated than you.
@@HOXHOXHOXyou must've just passed 23:20🤣
"Please check the original message date before you reply. The comment you responded to is 6000 years old. This topic has now been closed."
- the moderator
Oh I am so stoked to listen to this later when I'm off doing chores
Why not do both?...
Actually id likely be distracted from the images on the video. So best to wait but then again the narrations are easily understandable.
Either way enjoy! 💯
@@Handles-R-Lame "when I'm off doing chores" means "when I am doing chores", so it will be when doing both! :) I'm guessing an Irish or UK dialect typed that one
@@walksinrainSouthern US as well. Possibly related to a British lingual holdover? Idk.
China has a fascinating history. I am enjoying this series of videos.
One thing I want to point out is that for some illustrations showing the burial of King (leaders) of Liangzhu or Lingjiatan, the king is shown naked with jade ornaments. This is not likely as there are already evidence showing intricate fabrics can be manufactured at that time. The king should be buried in glossy silk or other kind of fabrics with complex patterns that echo with the jade ornaments.
Just one more video before I start studying
I vaguely remember saying the same thing a few years ago. Now I have a doctorate in TH-cam
@@Exit311 You’re me….but from the future :0
studying is so much more fun if you actually care about the topic :D
@@LiftandCoa I dunno man, Histocrat dropping a video covering 2000 years of history…..versus looking at some teeth….y’know what…. The video’s better haha
Good luck!
This is amazing! Would be pretty cool if eventually there was a playlist for each of the cradles of civilization, which I’m addition to Mesopotamia and China would include Egypt, the Indus Valley, the Olmec, and the Norte Chico.
Would be cool to learn about my Olmec ancestors, though it would probably be best if it were left for last, along with Norte Chico, so by the time you get to it there will be a bit more information known about these relatively poorly understood civilizations.
Try Made In History. They seem to have a lot of the kind of thing you are looking for.
Ancient americas made a video about the Olmecs I believe
seriously doubt this guy would put a serious effort into natives of the americas. he seems to lack the sensitivity to appreciate races outside of his own
Norte Chico is so tragically undertalked about! Not many people no civilization in South America is nearly as old as Sumer and Egypt.
You forgot to mention Minoan/Greece
I was fortunate enough to see one of those "pig dragons" of Hongshan culture in a museum when visiting China. They claimed it to be the "first dragon of China" which simply went over my head. Didn't realize it was that far back in human history
三星堆去过吗？那是一个未知文明 非常震撼
A new Histocrat, this has turned into a great Sunday.
Incredibly detailed, hats off to all the research and work done!
Im really loving this birth of china series! I hope it continues for a long time to come.
Curious about 2 main things, A) how much "traditional historiography" will be covered going forward. Im hoping very little personally. I hope/expect this video series to stick purely to the archaeology.
And B) how the next video(s) will be divided in terms of years covered. Will this next video cover the pre-erlitou culture or cover it itself? Personally, I think an entire video on the 3000BC-2000BC period is very possible, so I hope it takes that narrower focus. Leave the Erlitou culture for a video further down.
Cant wait to listen to this later today man im looking forward to it
This channel has quickly become one of my favorites ever
It's wild to think how "small" their world's were. Their entire lives. So simple, yet complicated, the same emotions and what not. But just so much smaller in terms of perspective.
I envy them.
they didn’t know about cells, or atoms, or what lay outside their village, but they knew how to weave and sew and create all sorts of intricate things that have since been lost to time. sure, i know all sorts of trivia about history, but i don’t know how to cultivate the earth.
Wow! Xian has a really rich (pre) history. It was not only a site from the earliest Chinese states, but even from the time before the states
Neolithic history is the best and the music is just plain amazing!
Perfect for my Sunday night chilldown -- thanks man!
I've been curious since the last video in this series, but this title makes me even more so. Have you read David Graeber and David Wengrow's 'the dawn of everything: A new history of humanity'? I'd love to get your perspective on it. I found it a fascinating and uplifting read, but I don't really have the background to judge the validity of it's arguments as a law student.
Thank you for the new vid! Glad to see more East Asian history out there.
Great work man. I've been waiting for this for a long time.
You should have mentioned the identities of each culture, for instance Daxi being associated with the ancestors of the Miao, Dapenkeng being associated with the early Austronesians and Yangshao often associated with the long process of partition into the proto-Tibetics and proto-Sinitics.
Excellent series! When is the next video on China going to be released?!
loved it! thanks for the great work, as per usual :D
Extraordinary contribution to what we currently know about early pre-Chinese culture.
Really appreciate the various sources you quote, including Chinese archeologists.
I'm always surprised when I start comparing dates between proto-China & the world's other river cultures. I need to remind myself that the climatic conditions in the Far East are NOT conducive to preservation of materials. The Nile Valley & even the land between 2 rivers with their unpredictable flooding are much drier -- bordering on desert.
So knowing, for example that Egyptian Dynasties had come & gone long before what could be called "China" existed, or other aspects of the timeline have to be viewed in that context.
We'll have a HUGE amount of re-evaluation to do as more evidence arises -- from Paleolithic to some of the well-known eras.
Thanks for giving such detail & I'm eager to see what's next.
Once, some guy in Reddit argued that Shang Dynasty was some fishing villages and Xia is imaginary. I'm not Chinese but it it's just so insulting to all of Asia .
I didn't know that archaeology can be racist.
@@Seisoks Western archeologists always downplay Chinese civilization, Shang didn't just pop out of nowhere, there had to be a "Xia culture" there before that, some people even claim "Chinese" never existed and were all "northern peoples" from Mongolia/Siberia which is nonsense, it is definitely insulting
@@danielzhang1916 Fyi I'm from ASEAN.
Tell me about it, bro. There is some political propaganda bs on going inside the western archaeology school of thought. Like glazing Roman as the center of the world, and blatantly disregarding Indian and Chinese civilizations of the time.
This is really well made. Ur voice is great, man. Liked and subbed
The more things changes, the more they've stayed the same...a fantastic video as ever!
I hope you understand this is not to mock or anything, but I couldn't keep on watching the videos because of the repetitiveness of your voice inflexions :/ once I started hearing the pattern of your sentences I couldn't make sense of the words anymore.
I wouldn't have commented but I feel maybe it can be a useful feedback?
Thanks for sharing and creating this content!
So his voice doesn't float your boat? Maybe he should use an AI generated voice or modify his voice with AI.
He's english what are you on about
Very true, can't listen to that very long.
@@xlr555usa ...or just speak like a normal person would do. It is not the voice but an unreasonable way of emphasizing sentences that is disturbing.
One indeed gets the impression that it is just read from a prompter, without reflecting the content while reading...
Yeah, it was very noticeable and quite distracting at times.
Contemplating human nature, one is forced to conclude, that inequality appeared with the appearance of more than on person in one place.
those who had more have always risen above others, that's human history, from lords to kings to emperors
If you took all the worlds wealth and distributed equally to everyone on earth within 5 minutes there would be inequality
No shit sherlock. It's the dawn of inequality(In china).
Society naturally panders to the male.
@@ooOPizzaHeadOoo you're comparing to recent times, we're talking about the course of human history, every noble and royal started off like this, that's the point I was making here, not talking about billionaires
Thank you, cant wait for the next video
I highly recommend reading ""The Good Earth".
Thank the old gods and new for a new histocrat documentary❤
The artworks in the video is really beautiful and immersive
Guess I know what I'm going to do for the next hour five mins and 39 secs
Very interesting! Unfortunately, to me the monotone emphasis sounds a bit off…
Chinese history is becoming my Roman Empire
It is a shame it isn't more accessible, because there is tons of good stuff in there.
Also the politics don't help, the comments here will be spicy.
Yuck
Whats with this video being unavailable to download?
Probably because it just got uploaded.
I can download now, it was probably just the video still processing on TH-cam's end.
For example it's been a recent trend that videos on some channels have no audio for the first few minutes. I'm not sure if that got fixed or not, haven't been early enough in a while.
What's with the constant upward inflection for the whole reading?
It’s just how the guy reads
Any news on the forthcoming video in this series?
So excited for this one!
51:26 Good bear boi taking a nice bath🐻
One thing I'd like to understand is how the very initial inequality begins in human history. Is it that one farmer has a slightly more productive plot of land or a significantly more productive plot of land? Is it that some families engage in violence against others to secure larger plots of land for themselves? As I understand it, plots tended to both become subdivided for inheritance as well as families growing as large as the plot could support. How then did the initial wealthier farmers manage to have larger plots and less family members per area? Did they simply refuse to subdivide at inheritance or refuse to have more children? What about sedentary foragers who developed inequality, how was that process similar or different? Was it partially a social thing where socially influential people due to charisma, skill or connections were able to extract more gifts and loyalty to amass wealth?
There is both the question of what the process of initial accumulation was and also the question of how it was preserved, as in why didn't others through pressure or violence maintain a more equal society in reaction to the threat of another gaining an advantage.
I imagine they were more sophisticated than we would assume. Many of the things they had to do to be successful are more impressive than what a modern person does.
The violent and ambitious acquire more land and pay people to be in their circle and defend them
This is essentially unanswerable. Since all people have already natural variation in ability and capacity, to add also that one's own children and relatives are a kind of property and capital in primitive societies insofar as they can perform labour. Also, gratitude in modern sensibilities is nearly non-existent: gift giving and acts of kindness always carried the weight of moral obligation and debt in small tight-knit groups, making "the generous" people sort of wealthy by being able to expect help in the future. This is not even to add religious-shaman minorities, otherwise "worthless", except for service remembrance of past generations and epic poetic recitations, making them prestigious in the group. These don't map well at all with modern quantitative analyses of wealth per capita at all. Good question, but I think it's basically impossible to answer.
Most social mammals are hierarchical. We were too, before the start of "history", before homo sapiens was sapiens.
@@erlinacobrado7947You are correct. One was "wealthy" in tribal economies by the amount of respect he had by the others in the tribe. Naturally, leadership tended to go hand in hand with wealth in the form of reciprocity.
The Dawn of Heirarchy might have been a better tagline.
Yea. Inequality implies a negative value. Hierarchy is a good thing and the only reason humans progressed from primate to astronaut.
Indeed. It is poor anthropology to ignore that fact that we are hierarchical beings. It has been the role of higher religion to introduce and press the case for the values of accountability and social responsibility as obligations for those with power. Of course human pagan tendencies keep raising the ugly head of the will power in order to try to corrupt religion for self-serving ends. Hence, demagogues from Robespierre to Hitler to Mao to Trump all promote idolatry.
@@Svevsky cool story, still inequality.
Speaking less jokingly, do you not see how these are just inverse views on the same thing? You should not take it as a personal attack, but it's undeniable that the societies examined in this video are showing clearer and clearer signs of having haves and have-nots.
Hierarchy developed immediately upon communities being formed.
@ahumpierrogue137 True equality is a fairy tale though. Like it or not people aren't equal. So saying a society has inequality isn't really saying anything. They all do and always will.
Looking forward to listening to the next episode of "The Birth of China"!
Great that you post sources, comrade.
Love these!
I'm currently doing an art project on the Xia Dynasty, got here just a little too early :(
fantastically high quality video, but please invest in a better mic. a lot of words just fade into nothing and it makes it really hard to follow along! good job tho on everything else
@@Dedog0 It is the narrator, not the tech.
Reasonably sure this is an AI / TTS narrator. Every sentence follows the exact same tonal pattern- low, high until the last word, low- and every single one is in the exact same tones. If you listen at higher speed it's inhumanly uniform.
Nooooooo. This series is so good but its not all out yet!!!
Is there anywhere where people could purchase some of the illustrations?
Look in the description for the name of the artist
Walter! This isn't a guy who built the railroads here...
I am the walrus?
Thanks!
We're not worthy we're not worthy❤❤❤❤
We are tho
. some references to possible human/child sacrifices were made and I wonder whether these were not specifically referred to due to accusations of "poor anthropology" - see below for some commentators preferring the term "heirarchy" to "inequality" - although even "slavory/castism" would have been ok for me!!
When do we get the next episode! ❤❤❤
Just the title suggests you're taking a lot of points from "The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow review - inequality is not the price of civilisation" i hope you are because its a bloody masterpiece of a book.
Is millet different to wheat? Do we still eat it?
Millets are many species. They are drought resistant and hardy. Growing in cold, hot climates and probably climates with diurnal temperature variations. They were independently domesticated in different parts of the world. China, Africa and perhaps other locations.
Yes, it is still consumed. Gluten free.
It is sold on stalk for bird feed. Check it.
The “sequel” to 9 Sols.
Perfect timing
Mr Beat recommended this channel.
Histocrat = the cure for insomnia. In a good way!!
SO very good!
how did i miss this video?
Protection from other groups is what lead to rulers. Just like it always does
所以當人類能把人類視為一個整體的時候，就沒有藉口了。
@@nobody687 I think it is rather connected to a surplus of food and with that the possibility for individuals to specialize. This started the structuring of society and introduced roles - such as leaders.
@tomsaltner3011 Even hunter gathers have a leader. All groups of humans have leaders. What led to civilization was when someone produced beer in high amounts and set up a place to trade it. That's my theory. It's logical,
The narration is very sing song
This progression of development and their telltale material culture items and emerging social hierarchy, is typical for all societies everywhere.
After you finish this series, you should go on to mesoamerica, after a well deserved break of course
did you speak about the scythians because they played big part in Chinese culture and tech advancement.
Farming makes valuable places and piles of stored energy. These places can be attacked, raided and occupied with the locals enslaved and killed. The enslaved can be put to work on agriculture. This drives the emergence of a warrior class who tend to be male and who tend to take over. If women are used as warriors, the side thauses them will have more warriors at first, but as reproductive rates fall, there are less warriors. He male warriors form alliances with shamens to control the underlings better with fantastic narratives. And so here are today.
the video is well made, but as a Sinologist I always get weird vibes when the word China is used for a political construct that early in history. It plays into the myth of the eternal nation state and is more ideological than historical. I think it would be better to stick to China as a geographical and not political entity
Why China strike your nerve? 它是中国的文明摇篮
@@fenxian 是非科学的
@@fenxian Winnie the pooh
政治实体也没错，因为不管是汉人还是蒙，满统治这一区域，都自称真龙天子，上天的儿子，以获得统治合法性，而中央王朝就是合法性的代表，统治者都以中央王朝正统自居
除了维尼就是维尼，维尼怎么了？维尼难道不是孩子们的好朋友与玩伴？！我不觉得维尼能让什么看上去更糟糕，相反，更显得发明该“词汇”的人无能与幼稚，除了起外号，好像什么也解决不了。还有没有别的词汇？！@@partoutatix5057
I don't disagree with what's being said, but other prehistoric societies are never framed this way.
Facts, can you be more specific so I understand you better though?
What do you mean?
Try Wikipedia
List of kingdoms and royal dynasties
The list is so long that they break it up by Continent.
Thanks ❤
It’s hard to believe that China’s archaeology is better than United States. As a matter of fact the United States archaeology is the laughing stock of the archaeological world. We are still covering up a genocide so we don’t really talk about what’s in the ground. .
Wait a minute… WHAT IT’S THIS A CHINESE SHOE ON DIRT WTH??? 17:35
Wow weird thing flying in the sky starting around 18:30. Looks like a plane?
Informative
Inequality has always existed. Nothing can ever be truly equal to all. Inequality is a product of nature not humanity.
So good😊
"Dawn of Inequality" applies to literally all civilizations.
The accent is fine. The chant-like delivery could use some variation.
Was the title written by US state department?
Certainly inequality did not start in China, or better it would be impossible to know but we can guess it started in tbe first human community. Did China have the first human community?
The name makes more sense if you watched the previous video. He is saying that in the context of the more egalitarian culture that this culture supplanted.
@@SarahTheRebelOfficial that makes more sense. thanks for the reply
中国的什么都是在西方传来的，母系社会是西方传来的，父系社会也是西方传来的，青铜铁器，包括人也是在西方走来的，还有现在的共产主义
Lots of people in the comments uncomfortable with the word “inequality” apparently 🙄 great video as usual 👍
You had me at bone & stone items 😫
Reject civilization. Return to monke.
That's a crazy title
More like the dawn of WINNERS. 🫠🥳😎
Creator of video is probably anti china white boi
i love your videos but if you could ease a litte on the inflections it would be so nice thank you.
No...agriculture has not too much to do with it. When a tribe grows too large and so ruling/solving problems becomes more difficult and time-consuming and demanding different skills, then a 'prime leader/premier/prime-minister/king/chef=sheriff=shariff-chief/boss, etc.. first chosen but soon (the family is used to special treatments and wealth) became a heriditary lucrative job. Working/fighting was no longer needed. 24hours protection was requiered. In no time an 'elite-group' with special treatment and beneficials was established. In my opinion, an automatic irreversable mechanisme. Also...after wars, the captured 'non-humans' served as dispensable slaves. The lowest 'class', the 'dalith's', the deplorables.
The reason for growth might have been 1)fertile population 2)fertile soil and nature 3)an agressive attitude and hunger for wealth and power 4)'sharing' goods and food was not a cherished lifestyle, certainly not with foreigners. Anything changed in our attitude?
Yes or just foreign invaders
@@JuliaZuckerberg possible....we will never know 2hat really halsppened. That is the beauty of it: we all can assume, think, learn, associate... but the truth lies in the faraway past and even then....Who knows exactly what is going on right now on all fronts and behind the scenes? Noone!
We see in written records that often aristocracy formed from warriors. As victorious warriors, these families were honoured with lands and authority, which led to the development of a warrior caste as father passed this warrior expectation onto sons.
@@MackerelCat obvious and logical. Even within animal packs. This is an automatical procedure. But terrible for the great majority, enduring their enslavement under that 'nobility. And we...the deplorables....admire them, obey them, serve them from early in the morning till early in the morning. From being born till death comes to take them away.
Ayoooooo HISTOCRAT DROPPED 🗣️🔥🔥🔥🔥
9:06 those seem like cooking platters
At the end of every sentence you raise the pitch of your voice.
Awesome
What’s up with the periodic compressed high tone accent in the narration?
What about the vast amount of ancient pyramids all over China? No mention?
Bit too early. Those would most likely be in the next episode.
"Dawn of inequality"
I’ve never seen a doc on a culture with a title that includes inequality. f the west and these people with these micro aggression titles.
TH-cam is filled with these frauds who like to brand them self as "educational channel." Its all a fucking psyop.
The title of this video explains it all you guys are completely ignorant we are animals there has been inequality since the dawn of time
Well you should study History more 😊
The title of this piece, in light of recent years of China bashing, may feed into this bias.
Inequality, in this world where most people would have difficulty making sense of things without relativity, is merely the condition of how things are.
Imagine in the ancient time, a group of people surviving in the wild, someone wiser understand how to utilize the resources, not only help ensure the group's survival but enable them to thrive, thus not only earning appreciation from the people maybe respect or reverance even.
An inequality resulting from such, would it be not natural?
Not to mention someone put in more work reaping better results.
Each society that prospers, invents their own capitalism
18:00 I thought dragons were mythical, but this made me curious so I looked it up. It turns out there is a real animal called a Chinese dragon, it is a local alligator species. It is endangered now, but at that time it would have been common. Look up Chinese alligator to see pictures of the real thing. They get to be about 5 to 7 feet in length and up to 80 to 100 lb. Not mythical after all! No wonder dragons are considered water animals. They are real live alligators. LOL
Doubt it.
1. Chinese alligators are mentioned from 3000 years ago, while the individual buried with the dragon dates to more than 4000 years ago
2. You can’t look at the dragon mosaic and honestly state that it looks like an alligator
3. The earliest chinese settlements started much more north than the Yangtze where the crocodile is from
4. Where do you find that the chinese alligator is called a chinese dragon? Would like to see that source
Much more likely, the association is made when people catch an unusual animal (in this case an alligator) and then claim to have caught a “dragon” in order to rake in the big bucks
dragons are mythical. It was probably a totem animal spirit to protect a village or area like those you in native america. some tribes will take over other totems over time and add to their totem, which is probably why the dragon had hybrid features from other animals. and ancient depictions of dragons are very abstract slithe creatures. the current version is mainly from the Ming dynasty where they are potrayed in a very aggressive pose.
Dragons are real
prehistoric celts: chalcolothic shenanignans
prehistoric asians: sociological stratification, dawn of inequality
looool nice video dude
amazing video! however i think it'd be very helpful to include the corresponding Chinese characters of the proper names in the subtitles :D
funny robogob fail.
a british accent yet cannot pronounce 'flourish' and a cadence more like mandarin.
am I the only one who notices these things?
Do you never misspeak? Plus his pronunciation of some Chinese names is wrong, or changes between times he says it.
10:02 Hey hey it's my hometown Xi'an! Wooooo!