It wasn't just Greece: Archaeologists find early democratic societies in the Americas

[Odin]

Fascinating Science article I ran into!

[pbrower2a]

(03-19-2017, 01:38 PM)Odin Wrote: Fascinating Science article I ran into!

Much of what we think of pre-Columbian America is what the European conquerors report - that the people were barbarous and had perverted religion. Truly-civilized Europeans burned heretics and hanged witches, robbed the First Peoples blind, and established slavery. Of course white people are exempt from barbarity... yeah, sure.

Quote:Collective states may have another tendency that can be spotted archaeologically: They attract people from beyond their borders, who bring artifacts that can be linked to other cultures. "When you have a collective formation that's funded by internal resources, it's in the interest of those in government to bring in more people," says Gary Feinman, an archaeologist at The Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois, and a co-author on Blanton's 1996 paper. Economic equality and markets may also attract immigrants to collective societies. "People move where they think there's better opportunity—where they can make a living, where their kids are going to do better than they did. That's always a motivation," Feinman says.

People go where the opportunities are. It is often the immigrants who create their own opportunities. Just think of the high-technology businesses. Places with declining opportunity, like Coal Country, are not attracting the immigrants. When coal was booming because steel was booming (much of the coal goes into steel production), coal mines attracted immigrants. That of course is over.

But diversity requires a legitimization of difference.

[Marypoza]

(03-19-2017, 01:38 PM)Odin Wrote: Fascinating Science article I ran into!

The 6 Nations is one of the oldest democracies  in the world. Still standing, that is. The Constitution is based on it

[Warren Dew]

(03-19-2017, 01:38 PM)Odin Wrote: Fascinating Science article I ran into!

More like bureaucracy than democracy, given what they're saying is just that it wasn't a monarchy, not that there was any actual voting involved.  I'm also unsure that being beaten with spiked whips makes one more qualified for office.

[Ragnarök_62]

(07-05-2017, 09:44 PM)Warren Dew Wrote:

(03-19-2017, 01:38 PM)Odin Wrote: Fascinating Science article I ran into!

More like bureaucracy than democracy, given what they're saying is just that it wasn't a monarchy, not that there was any actual voting involved.  I'm also unsure that being beaten with spiked whips makes one more qualified for office.

Said article stated that sadism was a pre selector for those standing for office.  That's outdated 'cause we have a have a new way of the pre selector. Said pre selector is itself freely chosen. That makes it American and all. This pre selector is booze + voluntary hazing + go to colledge.  So here's a theory wrt dysfunctional democracy. It's the college,frat/soro/do booze all have a sort property.
Like go to Ivy league, form connections with future cronies, lay off the booze, but frat/soro .  Here one has to juggle the frat/soro with booze level low enough so as not to screw up college. This means this person is perfect for politics. Balances conflicting goal, has backup cronies, and has a cherry on top, pedigree degree. Hazing makes the old new again. Ppl. choose torture to get places. OTOH, you're boozer becomes your loser because high booze intake messes up staying in college.  So, here it's very bad. Student debt, but no degree. I do see a route for the every so often humdrum. In some cases you're used car salesman can have bright prospects in politics.  Just add low information voter and just sell yourself like your product. If you're a CEO or the like, just buy whatever office you want. It's a hot market.

[Eric the Green]

Tribal societies worldwide were more "democratic" than the city-states and empires of early civilization, whose influence remained strong in its later phases. European Dark Age tribes were less autocratic than the royal states that came later. It seems according to the article that some societies in Mesoamerica were ruled by more than one autocrat; they may not have been democracies, but there was some ability to bring others into the ruling of society, and awareness of satisfying the needs of the people.

[Bill the Piper]

Native Americans were stuck on Bronze Age level, roughly similar to the Old War in times of Abraham. If they had the chance to develop further, an age of empires would surely follow. Amerindian kings and emperors would have conquered and assimilate the tribal democracies, like Rome did.

[David Horn]

(01-24-2019, 08:16 AM)Bill the Piper Wrote: Native Americans were stuck on Bronze Age level, roughly similar to the Old War in times of Abraham. If they had the chance to develop further, an age of empires would surely follow. Amerindian kings and emperors would have conquered and assimilate the tribal democracies, like Rome did.

As it is, some of that occurred.  The Maya, Aztecs and especially the Incas assimilated tribes in their formative stage, but the lack of horses, or an equivalent, made the management of large scale civilizations difficult.