A SENSE OF TIME For seven million years humans lived in tribal communities without much division of labor. The exception was a division of labor among women and men, brought about by genetic differences. Then came the agrarian revolution with a more differentiated division of labor and hierarchy among men and among women, but certainly also between women and men. Those were cultural constructions, build over 7,000 years of the entire human evolution, that is, over only one-thousandth of the whole period of 7,000,000 years. Now we have the industrial revolution spreading over the planet with even more division of labor and hierarchy among men, among women, and between women and men. Those are also cultural constructions, build over a period of broadly 70 years on average. That is only one-hundred thousandth (1/100,000) of the entire human evolution of 7,000,000 years. Systematic attempts to create equal opportunities for women and men are just as recent. If we, as relative lay people, want to estimate the ratio between genetic and cultural forces that shape human behaviors, we may consider the wide gap between the genetically shaped behaviors of tribal life over seven million years and the extremely short period of one-hundred thousandth of the entire human evolution where some of us want to create equal opportunities for all. More than some of us are ready to believe, we may consider that the genetically caused division of labor between women and men visible in tribal life is still working quite strongly. This time perspective is not to undermine emancipatory work but to reinforce its success by make it more realistic than thinking within the time frame of one or two generations, let alone of a development project or an elected government.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Sep 2014 10:41:14 +0000
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