Why would a society need a chief or shaman? Conflict resolution. With a small (100 or less) band of humans, there's no need for this because they all know each other, and they need to work together to survive. However, to support a larger group of humans, you must have a society that relies largely on farms for a food supply, therefore forming a city around the farms. With this larger society comes more contact between strangers, which creates conflict, and thusly a need for a chief or shaman.
Centrally controlled power and economics are not inevitable, nor are they genetically programmed into us as a species. They didn't appear until the first humans began living in sedentary, farm-based societies following the (accidental, most likely) discovery of domestication. When this happens, all of a sudden you have a mass of people living together that are not related, and therefore don't get along too well. From this rises a central power to police and control the people. Also, the redistribution of crops among others living in the city requires a centralized economy, which in the beginning was the same policing power, and was often 1 person. Centrally controlled power and economies were a result of evolution of the human species, not a genetic predisposition.
No, the point here is that the person driving on the highway for 4 hours will most likely get better gas mileage than the person driving in town, yet the person driving in town will be taxed less because they drove the least distance. So you get a tax cut by being wasteful?
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Why would a society need a chief or shaman? Conflict resolution. With a small (100 or less) band of humans, there's no need for this because they all know each other, and they need to work together to survive. However, to support a larger group of humans, you must have a society that relies largely on farms for a food supply, therefore forming a city around the farms. With this larger society comes more contact between strangers, which creates conflict, and thusly a need for a chief or shaman.
Centrally controlled power and economics are not inevitable, nor are they genetically programmed into us as a species. They didn't appear until the first humans began living in sedentary, farm-based societies following the (accidental, most likely) discovery of domestication. When this happens, all of a sudden you have a mass of people living together that are not related, and therefore don't get along too well. From this rises a central power to police and control the people. Also, the redistribution of crops among others living in the city requires a centralized economy, which in the beginning was the same policing power, and was often 1 person. Centrally controlled power and economies were a result of evolution of the human species, not a genetic predisposition.
...for you to pirate. (C'mon, you know you would...)
So instead of 'piracy', it's 'civil disobedience'?
No, the point here is that the person driving on the highway for 4 hours will most likely get better gas mileage than the person driving in town, yet the person driving in town will be taxed less because they drove the least distance. So you get a tax cut by being wasteful?
Then again, when you can get a copy of Windows XP Pro from the local university for $15, that's not a problem now is it...