Date: Thu, 11 Apr 1996 12:42:21 -0400
Subject: Re: Chicken or Egg -Reply


Lisa writes:

>Adam, you are _defining_ human society as "collective production and
>reproduction" and you seem happy to leave it at that, while I want to
>take that apart and look inside, to see exactly how and why people do
>various things, why they even form into a group at all.  

Well, where is the non-group, non-social human being you take as
_your_ starting point?  Is there any evidence for the existence of
non-enculturated isolated individuals?  Is there any evidence that
human beings have not _always_ engaged in "collective production
and reproduction"?

Doesn't the extended childhood of humans _demand_ that people
have always and everywhere engaged in "collective production and
reproduction" -- that in fact this is a necessary condition for the exis-
tence of human beings?

The existence of humanity is predicated on sociality.

-- Matt D.



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