Quote:
Originally Posted by Botnst
Those are social constructs and change with the whims of culture. The biblical Patriarchs, if transported to Peshawar, would fit in after maybe a half-hour of sign language. It might take them a couple more days to get a job as a cabbie in NYC.
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I agree these are social changes but I don't think they are a matter of whim. The changes occur partly (largely?) as a result of things like population growth, need for more calories from better farming etc. For instance, if on a whim we decided to return to being hunter gatherers, most of the population would starve to death. Abraham might fit in Peshawar but his social system wouldn't develop universities, hospitals etc. Pakistan would never have developed nuclear weapons if the sum total of their cultural institutions were rooted in patriarchal tribal culture. They needed the universities, education and democracy of the West to do it. Old Abe might be capable of being a taxi driver but he couldn't be a university president, a hospital administrator or a CEO.