Editing Paleolithic (section)

== Social organization ==
{{Unreliable sources|date=February 2010}}

[[File:Arrowhead.jpg|thumb|Humans may have taken part in long-distance trade between [[band society|bands]] for rare commodities and raw materials (such as stone needed for making tools) as early as 120,000 years ago in Middle Paleolithic.]]
The social organization of the earliest Paleolithic ([[Lower Paleolithic]]) societies remains largely unknown to scientists, though Lower Paleolithic hominins such as ''Homo habilis'' and ''Homo erectus'' are likely to have had more complex social structures than chimpanzee societies.<ref name=White>{{cite web |url=http://www.indiana.edu/~arch/saa/matrix/ia/ia03_mod_10.html |title=Intro to archeology The First People and Culture |access-date=2008-03-20 |author=Nancy White |work=Introduction to archeology |archive-date=2012-10-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121009153844/http://www.indiana.edu/~arch/saa/matrix/ia/ia03_mod_10.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Late Oldowan/Early Acheulean humans such as ''Homo ergaster''/''Homo erectus'' may have been the first people to invent central campsites or home bases and incorporate them into their foraging and hunting strategies like contemporary hunter-gatherers, possibly as early as 1.7 million years ago;<ref name="encarta.msn.com"/> however, the earliest solid evidence for the existence of home bases or central campsites (hearths and shelters) among humans only dates back to 500,000 years ago.<ref name="encarta.msn.com"/>

Similarly, scientists disagree whether Lower Paleolithic humans were largely [[monogamous]] or [[polygynous]].<ref name=White/> In particular, the Provisional model suggests that [[bipedalism]] arose in pre-Paleolithic [[australopithecine]] societies as an adaptation to monogamous lifestyles; however, other researchers note that [[sexual dimorphism]] is more pronounced in Lower Paleolithic humans such as ''Homo erectus'' than in modern humans, who are less polygynous than other primates, which suggests that Lower Paleolithic humans had a largely polygynous lifestyle, because species that have the most pronounced sexual dimorphism tend more likely to be polygynous.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6937476.stm |title=Finds test human origins theory |work=[[BBC News]] |first=James |last=Urquhart |access-date=20 March 2008 |date=8 August 2007}}</ref>

Human societies from the Paleolithic to the early Neolithic farming tribes lived without states and organized governments. For most of the Lower Paleolithic, human societies were possibly more hierarchical than their Middle and Upper Paleolithic descendants, and probably were not grouped into [[band society|bands]],<ref name=Bohem198-208>Christopher Boehm (1999) [https://books.google.com/books?id=ljxS8gUlgqgC&dq=Paleolithic&pg=PA197 "Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior" pp. 198–208] Harvard University Press</ref> though during the end of the Lower Paleolithic, the latest populations of the hominin ''Homo erectus'' may have begun living in small-scale (possibly egalitarian) bands similar to both Middle and Upper Paleolithic societies and modern hunter-gatherers.<ref name=Bohem198-208/>

Middle Paleolithic societies, unlike Lower Paleolithic and early Neolithic ones, consisted of bands that ranged from 20–30 or 25–100 members and were usually nomadic.<ref name="McClellan"/><ref name=Bohem198-208/> These bands were formed by several families. Bands sometimes joined together into larger "macrobands" for activities such as acquiring mates and celebrations or where resources were abundant.<ref name="McClellan"/> By the end of the Paleolithic era ({{c.|10,000}}&nbsp;BP), people began to settle down into permanent locations, and began to rely on agriculture for sustenance in many locations. Much evidence exists that humans took part in long-distance trade between bands for rare commodities (such as [[ochre]], which was often used for religious purposes such as ritual<ref name=Henahan>{{cite web |url=http://www.accessexcellence.org/WN/SU/caveart.html |title=Blombos Cave art |access-date=12 March 2008 |first=Sean |last=Henahan |work=Science News}}</ref><ref name="Felipe Fernandez Armesto 2003 400">{{cite book |last=Armesto |first=Felipe Fernandez |url=https://archive.org/details/ideasthatchanged0000fern_a2p4/page/400 |title=Ideas that changed the world |publisher=[[Dorling Kindersley]] limited |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-7566-3298-4 |location=New York |page=[https://archive.org/details/ideasthatchanged0000fern_a2p4/page/400 400]}}; [https://books.google.com/books?id=tFIAAAAACAAJ&q=Ideas+that+changed+the+world+by+Felipe+Fernandez+Armesto]{{Dead link|date=May 2023|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref>) and raw materials, as early as 120,000 years ago in Middle Paleolithic.<ref name="Hillary Mayell" /> Inter-band trade may have appeared during the Middle Paleolithic because trade between bands would have helped ensure their survival by allowing them to exchange resources and commodities such as raw materials during times of relative scarcity (i.e. famine, drought).<ref name="Hillary Mayell"/> Like in modern hunter-gatherer societies, individuals in Paleolithic societies may have been subordinate to the band as a whole.<ref name="Leften Stavrianos">{{cite book |first=Leften Stavros |last=Stavrianos |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eamHPkIkE1UC&q=paleolithic+society&pg=PA23 |title=Lifelines from Our Past: A New World History |location=New Jersey |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-13-357005-2}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=eamHPkIkE1UC&dq=paleolithic+society&pg=PA23 pp. 9–13] [https://books.google.com/books?id=9H6oqN3Q-GoC&dq=Paleolithic+egalitarianism&pg=PA55 p. 70]</ref><ref name="Stavrianos"/> Both Neanderthals and modern humans took care of the elderly members of their societies during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic.<ref name="Hillary Mayell"/>

Some sources claim that most Middle and Upper Paleolithic societies were possibly fundamentally [[egalitarianism|egalitarian]]<ref name="McClellan"/><ref name="Stavrianos"/><ref name="Miller2006"/><ref name=Bohem198>Christopher Boehm (1999) [https://books.google.com/books?id=ljxS8gUlgqgC&dq=Paleolithic&pg=PA197 "Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior" p. 198] Harvard University Press</ref> and may have rarely or never engaged in organized violence between groups (i.e. war).<ref name="Miller2006"/><ref name="Gutrie">{{cite book |first=R. Dale |last=Gutrie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3u6JNwMyMCEC&q=Paleolithic+religions&pg=PA428 |title=The Nature of Paleolithic art |location=Chicago |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-226-31126-5}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=3u6JNwMyMCEC&dq=Paleolithic+religions&pg=PA428 pp. 420–422]</ref><ref name="Barbara Ehrenreich">{{cite book |first=Barbara |last=Ehrenreich |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nFuDltu509YC |title=Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War |location=London |publisher=Macmillan |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-8050-5787-4}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=nFuDltu509YC p. 123]</ref><ref name="Kelly">{{cite journal |last=Kelly |first=Raymond |title=The evolution of lethal intergroup violence |doi=10.1073/pnas.0505955102 |journal=[[PNAS]]
|volume=102 |date=October 2005 |pmid=16129826 |issue=43 |pmc=1266108 |pages=15294–98 |bibcode=2005PNAS..10215294K |doi-access=free}}</ref>

Some Upper Paleolithic societies in resource-rich environments (such as societies in [[Sungir]], in what is now Russia) may have had more complex and hierarchical organization (such as [[tribe]]s with a pronounced hierarchy and a somewhat formal [[division of labor]]) and may have engaged in [[endemic warfare]].<ref name="Miller2006"/><ref>Kelly, Raymond C. Warless societies and the origin of war. Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, 2000.</ref> Some argue that there was no formal leadership during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic. Like contemporary egalitarian hunter-gatherers such as the [[Mbuti#Political structure|Mbuti]] pygmies, societies may have made decisions by communal [[consensus decision making]] rather than by appointing permanent rulers such as chiefs and [[monarch]]s.<ref name="Kusimba 2003 285"/> Nor was there a formal [[division of labor]] during the Paleolithic. Each member of the group was skilled at all tasks essential to survival, regardless of individual abilities. Theories to explain the apparent egalitarianism have arisen, notably the [[Marxism|Marxist]] concept of [[primitive communism]].<ref>{{cite book |title=The Communist Manifesto |first1=Karl |last1=Marx |author-link1=Karl Marx |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TiKKmyacAiAC&q=Primitive+communism&pg=PA71 |first2=Friedrich |last2=Engels |author-link2=Friedrich Engels |year=1848 |location=London |pages=71, 87 |isbn=978-1-59986-995-7 }}{{Dead link|date=February 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Rigby |first=Stephen Henry |date=1999 |title=Marxism and History: A Critical Introduction |pages=111, 314 |publisher=[[Manchester University Press]] |isbn=0-7190-5612-8}}</ref> Christopher Boehm (1999) has hypothesized that egalitarianism may have evolved in Paleolithic societies because of a need to distribute resources such as food and meat equally to avoid famine and ensure a stable food supply.<ref name=Bohem192>Christopher Boehm (1999) [https://books.google.com/books?id=ljxS8gUlgqgC&dq=Paleolithic&pg=PA197 "Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior" p. 192] Harvard university press</ref> Raymond C. Kelly speculates that the relative peacefulness of Middle and Upper Paleolithic societies resulted from a low population density, cooperative relationships between groups such as reciprocal exchange of commodities and collaboration on hunting expeditions, and because the invention of projectile weapons such as throwing spears provided less incentive for war, because they increased the damage done to the attacker and decreased the relative amount of territory attackers could gain.<ref name="Kelly"/> However, other sources claim that most Paleolithic groups may have been larger, more complex, sedentary and warlike than most contemporary hunter-gatherer societies, due to occupying more resource-abundant areas than most modern hunter-gatherers who have been pushed into more marginal habitats by agricultural societies.<ref name=Kiefer>{{cite web |url=http://www.suluarchipelago.com/E20Website2002/default.htm |title=Anthropology E-20 |access-date=11 March 2008 |first=Thomas M. |last=Kiefer |date=Spring 2002 |work=Lecture 8 Subsistence, Ecology and Food production |publisher=[[Harvard University]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080410021259/http://www.suluarchipelago.com/E20Website2002/default.htm |archive-date=10 April 2008 |url-status=usurped }}</ref>

Anthropologists have typically assumed that in Paleolithic societies, women were responsible for gathering wild plants and firewood, and men were responsible for hunting and scavenging dead animals.<ref name="McClellan"/><ref name="Miller2006"/> However, analogies to existent hunter-gatherer societies such as the [[Hadza people]] and the [[Aboriginal Australians]] suggest that the sexual division of labor in the Paleolithic was relatively flexible. Men may have participated in gathering plants, firewood and insects, and women may have procured small game animals for consumption and assisted men in driving herds of large game animals (such as woolly mammoths and deer) off cliffs.<ref name="Miller2006"/><ref name="Barbara Ehrenreich"/> Additionally, recent research by anthropologist and archaeologist Steven Kuhn from the University of Arizona is argued to support that this division of labor did not exist prior to the [[Upper Paleolithic]] and was invented relatively recently in human pre-history.<ref name="Dahlberg">{{cite book |author=Dahlberg, Frances |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eTPULzP1MZAC&q=Gathering+and+Hominid+Adaptation&pg=PA120 |title=Woman the Gatherer |location=London |publisher=Yale University Press |year=1975 |isbn=978-0-300-02989-5}}</ref><ref name="NG2006/12/061207">{{cite web |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/12/061207-sex-humans.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061210022722/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/12/061207-sex-humans.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 10, 2006 |title=Sex-Based Roles Gave Modern Humans an Edge, Study Says |work=National Geographic News |author=Stefan Lovgren |access-date=2008-02-03}}</ref> Sexual division of labor may have been developed to allow humans to acquire food and other resources more efficiently.<ref name="NG2006/12/061207"/> Possibly there was approximate parity between men and women during the Middle and Upper Paleolithic, and that period may have been the most [[gender equality|gender-equal]] time in human history.<ref name="Gutrie"/><ref>{{cite book |first=Leften Stavros |last=Stavrianos |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MKhe6qNva10C&q=paleolithic+society |title=A Global History from Prehistory to the Present |location=New Jersey |publisher=[[Prentice Hall]] |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-13-357005-2 |quote=the sexes were more equal during Paleolithic millennia than at any time since.}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=MKhe6qNva10C&q=paleolithic+society p. 9]</ref><ref name=MuseumofAntiquites>[http://museums.ncl.ac.uk/flint/miscon.html Museum of Antiquites web site] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071121095952/http://museums.ncl.ac.uk/flint/miscon.html |date=2007-11-21 }} . Retrieved February 13, 2008.</ref> Archaeological evidence from art and funerary rituals indicates that a number of individual women enjoyed seemingly high status in their communities, and it is likely that both sexes participated in decision making.<ref name="MuseumofAntiquites"/> The earliest known Paleolithic [[shaman]] ({{c.|30,000}}&nbsp;BP) was female.<ref name=Tedlock>Tedlock, Barbara. 2005. The Woman in the Shaman's Body: Reclaiming the Feminine in Religion and Medicine. New York: Bantam.</ref> [[Jared Diamond]] suggests that the status of women declined with the adoption of agriculture because women in farming societies typically have more pregnancies and are expected to do more demanding work than women in hunter-gatherer societies.<ref name=jareddiamond>{{cite web |url=http://discovermagazine.com/1987/may/02-the-worst-mistake-in-the-history-of-the-human-race |title=The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race |work=Discover |author=Jared Diamond |access-date=2008-01-14}}</ref> Like most modern hunter-gatherer societies, Paleolithic and Mesolithic groups probably followed a largely ambilineal approach. At the same time, depending on the society, the residence could be virilocal, uxorilocal, and sometimes the spouses could live with neither the husband's relatives nor the wife's relatives at all. Taken together, most likely, the lifestyle of hunter-gatherers can be characterized as multilocal.<ref name=MarloweFW22/>