Sapiens 7 -- There is No Justice in History

See also these transcripts, posted by someone else who took Dr. Harari's Coursera course.

Lesson 07 - part 1 -- All post-AR societies have functioned by organizing into hierarchies based on imaginary stories.

• Hierarchical organization puts people into different categories and  people are treated accordingly. There is no need to know who they are and their abilities or personalities are.
• Hindu caste myth, Chinese classes myth, Capitalists
• These categories are purely imaginary! 
• While today, most would be outraged by the idea of racial hierarchy, we accept the idea of dividing/separating rich and poor, even though there is no real difference in skills/abilities.

Lesson 07 - part 2 -- Why do different societies choose different hierarchies?

• "The hierarchy that dominates in a particular society originated as a result of some accidental historical circumstances, and was then simply perpetuated over many, many generations"
• Hindu castes:  Aryan invaders feared they might lose their unique identity and their privileged status. To prevent this, they divided the population into castes, arguing that it reflected some kind of cosmic order and that its purpose was to protect society against impurity.
• "The impurity idea is very powerful because it is actually rooted in biological reality....  Different religions and social systems hijacked these biological mechanisms of developing disgust towards something and turned it against certain groups of people."
• American slavery/racism (a similar story):  Also accidental that black Africans became the slaves in US.  
• Causes: Indians died, Africa already had a thriving slave trade they could tap into, partial immunity to tropical diseases.
• "Paradoxically the biological superiority of Africans caused them to become socially inferior, because they were more fit than Europeans to live in the tropical climates..."
• Justifying myths became a racial ideology:  the story of Ham (theological), and the idea that blacks were less intelligent/moral, theory that blacks are polluted/dirty, or unreliable/lazy.
• Vicious, self-perpetuating myth, such that by the mid-20th century segregation in the Southern United States was probably worse than it was in the late 19th century.

The stories continued to be important to exert influence (and in many cases intensified) long after the original conditions disappeared or were long forgotten.

Lesson 07 - part 3 -- Gender hierarchy, the most widespread and persistent division across societies

• Throughout history, most societies have considered women to be men's property. (Rapists can just compensate owners for the "property damage" and move on, not worrying about the woman herself.)
• "To say that a husband raped his wife was as illogical as saying that a man stole his own wallet."
• Is male/female division an imaginary one (like caste or racism), or does it have a basis in biology?
• Every society that we know of in history managed to accumulate many cultural ideas and norms that have very little to do with biology. Societies associate a host of qualities and tasks and duties with masculinity and with femininity and for the most part they lack a firm biological basis.
• How can we determine if differences are truly biological or merely justifying myths?
• A good rule of thumb to distinguish between biological and myth is that biology enables, culture forbids.  Biology gives a possibility, but culture forbids it as "unnatural."  But there is nothing, in biology, that is unnatural because that would mean impossible.
• Our concepts of natural and unnatural are not taken from biology. They are taken from Christian theology and from monotheist theology in general from a Bible. "Natural" = using our bodies in the way God intended.
• sex = biological (objective) vs. gender = cultural (subjective)
• Masculinity can change radically from culture to culture (Louis XIV!)
• Patriarchy is so universal in human societies, it can't be a chance accident (like caste or racism); there must be some biological reason why societies valued male/masculine qualities over female/feminine qualities.

Lesson 07 - part 4 -- Why have men dominated women throughout history?  This remains one of the biggest unsolved riddles of history.  Flaws in the theories about universal biological reasons for patriarchy:

• Physical strength:  But this theory has several problems . . . 
• only true with regard to certain types of strength
• no relation between physical strength and social power (slaves are stronger than masters, young people are stronger than elders, etc.)
• in most societies, the stronger people ranked lowest (manual labor)
• even among chimps, the Alpha male is not always the strongest, but the one with best social skills
• Aggression/Testosterone:  Men evolved to become willing to engage in physical violence much more than women. So throughout history warfare was the monopoly, mainly, of men. Men were the warriors, the soldiers and generals. They used their control of armies and their control of war and warfare in order to gain control of civil society as well.
• BUT, just because men are biologically inclined to be soldiers doesn't mean that they should be the ones to direct/control warfare and reap the rewards.  (Like saying that because all the slaves in a cotton plantation are African, it means that the ones who control the plantation, and enjoy its benefits must also be African.)
• Survival/reproduction:  Men had to compete to spread their genes, so they evolved to be competitive.  Women were reliant on a provider/protector during childbearing/childraising years, so they evolved to be submissive.
• BUT, why does pregnancy/childcare make women dependent on men and not other women?
• Why would male competitiveness necessarily lead to social dominance?  Elephants and bonobos are matriarchal, even though there are dependent females and competitive males.  Strong cooperative networks of females control society, while males are too busy fighting and don't have well-developed social skills.  Females can cooperate to alienate any lone male.