Child rearing in paleolithic societies vs industrial societies
In industrial societies we consider 15 year olds children, whereas in both paleolithic and neolithic societies it was and is common for men to marry 15-20 years old and women even younger at 13 or 14 perhaps. We don't have to go long back in our collective memories but our grandmothers or their grandmothers to remember that's how things used to be. What is it about industrial societies that makes humans grow fast but mature much slower?
I blame it on a few factors but chiefly on the unavailability of parents in their children's education due to both the worldwide education system by day and electronic gadgets (radio, tv, computer, videogames, etc) by night.
Children are bound to sitting in a chair all day long and "abnormal" children who want to run in the classroom or in front of the TV (did anyone else think children are actually supposed to run all day long?) are labeled with things like undisciplined (think our parents' or grandparents' time) or ADHD (now). On the other hand, pharmaceutical companies are thrilled to be making multi-million dollars off of over-medicating children and the government is happy when the last "abnormal" children have been conformed to the system even at the cost of their mental health (is there any need to mention how destructive their side effects are?).
There is something about a herd of children seated in front of one adult who is standing in one spot, scribbling things on the wall and delivering dry information all day long, in vain trying to grab the attention and focus of these little monsters who don't want to shut up and sit still (!), that just doesn't sound like it has anything to offer to the growth of the human mind, body or spirit, nor does it sound like it befits the human nature in any reasonable way at all. It rather sounds like it is specifically designed to stump the growth of the mind and creativity of people at a young age to better facilitate the shaping of industrial robots who will find it normal to work in a factory all day long in monotonous motions (the best version being a cashier) instead of the paleo (hunter-gatherer/horticulturist) or neo (agricultural) people who typically work outdoors in nature all day long, under plenty of sunshine and Vitamin D, in contact with earth and the essential probiotics it has to offer. When you compare our culture with cultures of drastic difference it becomes rather unsurprising that every study measuring the creativity of primary school children shows a steep decline immediately after they start school and unfortunately the trend doesn't stop in the many years to come.
The system of examination, grading, ranking of test results, etc forces individuality and competition upon the students, rather than promoting among them the humanistic values of sharing, contribution and team work. This reflects in cruel ways to the make up of the society as these children grow into criminal (including white collar crime or "legal" crimes -think total war-) adults, rather than a people who peacefully cooperate to ensure everyone has their basic needs met. Thus it is not surprising that industrial societies have been more destructive than the neolithic which in turn were a lot more destructive than the rather peaceful and harmonious paleo people.
The worst thing paleo people do are tribal fights whereas the industrial people are responsible for WWI and WWII and the Cold War, etc where civilians and soldiers, men and women, children, elderly were not discriminated in the least bit, at least when it came to torture and murder. The advance in technology came at many costs, the worst being the advance in warfare. Compare the paleo hunting tools of blow-darts and arrows to the neo swords and cannons to the industrial atomic and biochemical bombs. Our advancement in destruction of the nature and humanity has been far greater than our advancement in building the desired. Consider a fundamental egotistical reason for this: warfare generates a multi-billion industry which building homes for the homeless simply cannot offer. What helping the needy offers is a spiritual reward rather than a material one, whereas the industrial society is staunchly materialistic and consumerist.
The stump of mental growth in children as well as their deprivation from being educated with humanistic values due to the inherent design of schooling is sadly not the worse side of the coin. The statistics of suicide, abuse and rape rates in teenagers are mind staggering as well as being well hid from the society at large to prevent parents from making an informed decision about sending them to school, because, seriously, how many parents will send their children to school if they heard of these statistics? (Below statistics courtesy of Middle Way House, Building Healthy Relationships Middle and High School Program.)
A national study of preteens and teens in public schools showed that about four-fifths (80%) of females and three-fifths (60%) of males experienced sexual harassment while in school (University of Florida, 2007).
1 in 4 American women will experience a sexual assault or rape in her lifetime (FBI, 2003).
1 in 10 American men will experience a sexual assault or rape in his lifetime (FBI, 2003).
44% of rape and sexual assault survivors, 44% of rape survivors are under age 18 (FBI, 2003).
70% of survivors know their assailants (FBI, 2003).
63% of rapes are not reported to the police (Bureau of Census. “Rape and Sexual Assault—Reports to Police and Medical Attention: 1992-2000.” Statistical Abstract of the US, 2006: The National Data Book. Online. Lexis Nexis Statistical Database. 25 Sept. 2006).
74% of sexual assaults are not reported to the police.
Teens 16-19 are more likely than the general population to be assaulted or raped. 80% of people that have been assaulted are under 30; half of these are under 18 (FBI 2007).
Approximately one in five female high school students reports being physically and/or sexually abused by a dating partner.
As many as one-third of high school and college-age youth experience violence in intimate relationships during their dating years.
Let's compare this to how the Paleolithic people raise their children. Their children grow in a peaceful and safe extended family environment without knowing what domestic abuse or dating abuse or school abuse are. Their schooling is done outdoors and is essentially in the form of job shadowing. Little girls follow their mothers and watch how they garden, gather vegetables and fruits from the wild, learning all the edible, medicinal and poisonous plants. They do so without memorizing them out of a botany textbook but by observing these plants in their natural settings where learning is an effortless process that is part of spending time with beloved mothers and aunts. Little boys follow their fathers and grandfathers while they hunt and watch their special techniques of making hunting tools, poisons, following tracks, making animal calls to confuse them, etc. Again they learn without the stress and pressure of doing well in exams but within the informal context of going out on an exciting hunting trip with grandpa.
They raise children in an environment where some of the most important values are "sharing" and "each contributing to his/her ability". Typically, for children this "contribution" is 2 things: taking care of pets (this is a lesson in animal behavior and they get to practice finding and bringing food for their pets, these pets can range from monkeys to vultures to parrots) and watching (or if they wish, assisting) parents and grandparents so they can learn how they do things and listen to their advice, this is their unstructured, spontaneous, open-air schooling. Grandparents are essential for the complete transmission of information, skills and wisdom (shaman healing, artisanry, etc) to the younger generations in these tribes, because it takes several decades for them to learn all the necessary survival and spiritual skills. In considering how essential grandparents were to the successful transmission and thus survival to early humans, note that a typical Paleo human who hasn't been seriously injured will live to 70-80 years of age, just enough time to ensure their children have completed their education (informative, skillful and spiritual) and their grandchildren are teenagers who have started contributing to the tribe.
I blame it on a few factors but chiefly on the unavailability of parents in their children's education due to both the worldwide education system by day and electronic gadgets (radio, tv, computer, videogames, etc) by night.
Children are bound to sitting in a chair all day long and "abnormal" children who want to run in the classroom or in front of the TV (did anyone else think children are actually supposed to run all day long?) are labeled with things like undisciplined (think our parents' or grandparents' time) or ADHD (now). On the other hand, pharmaceutical companies are thrilled to be making multi-million dollars off of over-medicating children and the government is happy when the last "abnormal" children have been conformed to the system even at the cost of their mental health (is there any need to mention how destructive their side effects are?).
There is something about a herd of children seated in front of one adult who is standing in one spot, scribbling things on the wall and delivering dry information all day long, in vain trying to grab the attention and focus of these little monsters who don't want to shut up and sit still (!), that just doesn't sound like it has anything to offer to the growth of the human mind, body or spirit, nor does it sound like it befits the human nature in any reasonable way at all. It rather sounds like it is specifically designed to stump the growth of the mind and creativity of people at a young age to better facilitate the shaping of industrial robots who will find it normal to work in a factory all day long in monotonous motions (the best version being a cashier) instead of the paleo (hunter-gatherer/horticulturist) or neo (agricultural) people who typically work outdoors in nature all day long, under plenty of sunshine and Vitamin D, in contact with earth and the essential probiotics it has to offer. When you compare our culture with cultures of drastic difference it becomes rather unsurprising that every study measuring the creativity of primary school children shows a steep decline immediately after they start school and unfortunately the trend doesn't stop in the many years to come.
The system of examination, grading, ranking of test results, etc forces individuality and competition upon the students, rather than promoting among them the humanistic values of sharing, contribution and team work. This reflects in cruel ways to the make up of the society as these children grow into criminal (including white collar crime or "legal" crimes -think total war-) adults, rather than a people who peacefully cooperate to ensure everyone has their basic needs met. Thus it is not surprising that industrial societies have been more destructive than the neolithic which in turn were a lot more destructive than the rather peaceful and harmonious paleo people.
The worst thing paleo people do are tribal fights whereas the industrial people are responsible for WWI and WWII and the Cold War, etc where civilians and soldiers, men and women, children, elderly were not discriminated in the least bit, at least when it came to torture and murder. The advance in technology came at many costs, the worst being the advance in warfare. Compare the paleo hunting tools of blow-darts and arrows to the neo swords and cannons to the industrial atomic and biochemical bombs. Our advancement in destruction of the nature and humanity has been far greater than our advancement in building the desired. Consider a fundamental egotistical reason for this: warfare generates a multi-billion industry which building homes for the homeless simply cannot offer. What helping the needy offers is a spiritual reward rather than a material one, whereas the industrial society is staunchly materialistic and consumerist.
The stump of mental growth in children as well as their deprivation from being educated with humanistic values due to the inherent design of schooling is sadly not the worse side of the coin. The statistics of suicide, abuse and rape rates in teenagers are mind staggering as well as being well hid from the society at large to prevent parents from making an informed decision about sending them to school, because, seriously, how many parents will send their children to school if they heard of these statistics? (Below statistics courtesy of Middle Way House, Building Healthy Relationships Middle and High School Program.)
A national study of preteens and teens in public schools showed that about four-fifths (80%) of females and three-fifths (60%) of males experienced sexual harassment while in school (University of Florida, 2007).
1 in 4 American women will experience a sexual assault or rape in her lifetime (FBI, 2003).
1 in 10 American men will experience a sexual assault or rape in his lifetime (FBI, 2003).
44% of rape and sexual assault survivors, 44% of rape survivors are under age 18 (FBI, 2003).
70% of survivors know their assailants (FBI, 2003).
63% of rapes are not reported to the police (Bureau of Census. “Rape and Sexual Assault—Reports to Police and Medical Attention: 1992-2000.” Statistical Abstract of the US, 2006: The National Data Book. Online. Lexis Nexis Statistical Database. 25 Sept. 2006).
74% of sexual assaults are not reported to the police.
Teens 16-19 are more likely than the general population to be assaulted or raped. 80% of people that have been assaulted are under 30; half of these are under 18 (FBI 2007).
Approximately one in five female high school students reports being physically and/or sexually abused by a dating partner.
As many as one-third of high school and college-age youth experience violence in intimate relationships during their dating years.
Let's compare this to how the Paleolithic people raise their children. Their children grow in a peaceful and safe extended family environment without knowing what domestic abuse or dating abuse or school abuse are. Their schooling is done outdoors and is essentially in the form of job shadowing. Little girls follow their mothers and watch how they garden, gather vegetables and fruits from the wild, learning all the edible, medicinal and poisonous plants. They do so without memorizing them out of a botany textbook but by observing these plants in their natural settings where learning is an effortless process that is part of spending time with beloved mothers and aunts. Little boys follow their fathers and grandfathers while they hunt and watch their special techniques of making hunting tools, poisons, following tracks, making animal calls to confuse them, etc. Again they learn without the stress and pressure of doing well in exams but within the informal context of going out on an exciting hunting trip with grandpa.
They raise children in an environment where some of the most important values are "sharing" and "each contributing to his/her ability". Typically, for children this "contribution" is 2 things: taking care of pets (this is a lesson in animal behavior and they get to practice finding and bringing food for their pets, these pets can range from monkeys to vultures to parrots) and watching (or if they wish, assisting) parents and grandparents so they can learn how they do things and listen to their advice, this is their unstructured, spontaneous, open-air schooling. Grandparents are essential for the complete transmission of information, skills and wisdom (shaman healing, artisanry, etc) to the younger generations in these tribes, because it takes several decades for them to learn all the necessary survival and spiritual skills. In considering how essential grandparents were to the successful transmission and thus survival to early humans, note that a typical Paleo human who hasn't been seriously injured will live to 70-80 years of age, just enough time to ensure their children have completed their education (informative, skillful and spiritual) and their grandchildren are teenagers who have started contributing to the tribe.
