I would be interested to know how Berman came to his conclusions. While it’s true that agriculture and sedentary way of life somewhat correlates with emergence of caste system, I don’t think the relationship is causal. And the reason is very simple — if I discard the first semi-permanent (or seasonal) settlements that date back to Pleistocene (Natufian culture ca. 12500 BC), and go simply with the first permanent settlements with horticulture (and later agriculture) and all the stuff, we have a period of ca. 6000 years of enormous boom in surplus products and thus also population. Yet the society was still egalitarian (basically the same as the one of hunter-gatherers).
Even though Berman states that “the evidence from grave goods indicates status differentiation by gender going back into the Middle Paleolithic (i.e. -75,000 years).” I’m quite sure that the evidence he used for that claim (though, as I said, I wonder what it was) is more an exception than the rule — AFAIK, the majority of graves and skeletal remains from the time humans started to bury their dead up until ca. 3500 BC exhibit (within a particular period) more or less the same properties in terms of grave goods and nutrition, the only exception being graves of shamans (see grave of Natufian shamanes ca. 12000 BP — oldest known grave to exhibit disproportionately richer inventory). And if by “differentiation by gender” Berman means that a male was buried with his trusty stone axe, while a female was buried with her beloved shell necklace, it does not mean the culture was stratified, I would say that it merely points out that the culture was sane.
Ironically, the shift to stratification occurred in the period 4000–3000 BC and it correlates with assumed change in climate (desertification of Levant) and decline in surplus, thus also probably intensifying famines. It’s also worth to mention that this transition also lines up with emergence of metallurgy (first known copper-alloy swords come from Arslantepe). Thus, as it seems and contrary to the popular belief, it was the perceived lack of resources and asymmetric access to technology combined with some “clever” social engineering ideas that contributed to the rise of caste systems.
I agree with you that humans are inherently selfish (yet I would still say that also pleasant and peaceful), and any parent with more than one child can attest to this. It’s also true that a group of people always sorts itself into some sort of structure. What we often fail to see, however, is that more often than not it’s not a hierarchy. Case in point — group of preschool children. Give them enough time and you will have leader(s), adjutants, tagalongs, but also an occasional bully, saboteur, etc. Still, the group remains overall egalitarian (provided, it’s not a group of little psychopaths), even if sometimes pretty violent.
Another factor to bear in mind is that while tribes were quite egalitarian within themselves, it was most probably not the case when it comes to inter-tribe relationships. It’s enough to look at languages of some ethnic groups today. Jews call everyone non-jewish goy, gypsies call themselves “roma” (meaning “husband” but also “man” as in human), and e.g. Navajos call themselves “dine” (meaning “people”). Thus, the very language of the tribe makes everyone outside of it literally a non-human. Go figure.
As for Occupy Wall Street — we cannot judge success of a seed of egalitarian society by it’s failure to sprout in the midst of global caste system. Suffice to say, I lived through a very brief period of anarchy in Central Europe after the fall of Iron Curtain, and, AFAICT, the society managed itself perfectly OK. But — external pressure (read international) and domestic mob put a very quick end to it.
Ad equating “hierarchical animism” with polytheism — yes, I treat those terms as synonyms. However, I would not call polytheism “a development of animism”, but a perversion of it. It definitely goes hand in hand with stratified society, but it’s a chicken and egg dilemma (both mutually reinforce each other).
Well, I know it’s tempting to excuse the state of our society as something inevitable, yet all facts hint at a sad reality that it is unnatural and idiotic, and on some level we all, at least, feel it.
