From matrilineal clan to patriarchy, polygyny in transitional societies The transition to sedentary life and agricultural production was a process…
For women, the agricultural revolution was a counterrevolution How, in the view of 19th-century anthropologist Lewis Henry Morgan, did early…
An overview of the ‘Agricultural Revolution’ The word “revolution” conjures up the image of a quick, qualitative, monumental and tumultuous…
Same-sex marriage in prehistoric societies Although the truly nightmarish conditions for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people that existed…
Domesticating the hunters – Knight’s hypothesis British anthropologist Chris Knight has joined a host of militant workers in capitalist society…
Domesticating the hunters: Reed’s hypothesis In Evelyn Reed’s book, “Woman’s Evolution,” she argues that the practice of cannibalism among male…
Women and the struggle for human sociality For anthropologists who subscribe to an evolutionary materialist approach to human origins, the…
The significance of ‘classification kinship’ In this installment, we deal with Lewis Henry Morgan’s crucial “classification kinship” discovery. Classificatory kinship…
The anti-communist basis of the anthropological counterrevolution We’ve made reference in this series to the ideological counterrevolution of the early…
Hominin origins and evolution We turn now to speculation on the origins and evolution of humanity. In this section, we…