The video presents an intriguing examination of human evolution, particularly focusing on the misconceptions of competition and survival in evolutionary history. anthropologist James Susman shares insights from his work with hunter-gatherer societies, challenging the survival of the fittest narrative often depicted in Western ideals. He contends that many animals, including early humans, prioritized relaxation and community over aggressive competition for resources. This perspective reflects a deviation from traditional economic theories that typically stress constant competition for energy and resources.

Susman provides a detailed account of the Jinwasi of the Kalahari Desert, illustrating their egalitarian social structure and minimal work hours compared to Western norms. The Janwasi's approach to community and work offers a stark contrast to the hierarchical and often stressful modern work environments. Susman argues that hunter-gatherers are adept at living harmoniously with nature, employing sophisticated skills to survive on minimal effort due to their profound understanding of their environment. His findings suggest that collaboration and a keen sense of environmental stewardship underpin these societies' success.

Main takeaways from the video:

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Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. australopithecus [ˌɒstrələˈpɪθɪkəs] - (noun) - An extinct genus of hominins, among the first in the human lineage. - Synonyms: (ancient humans, hominins, ancestors)

We're much more capable of learning skills than, let's say, our australopithecus ancestors a few million years ago were.

2. anthropologist [ænˌθrɒˈpɒlədʒɪst] - (noun) - A person who studies human societies, cultures, and their development. - Synonyms: (ethnologist, sociologist, cultural scientist)

My name is James Susman. I'm an anthropologist, and the title of my latest book is called work a deep history from the Stone Age to the age of robots.

3. egalitarian [ɪˌɡælɪˈtɛəriən] - (adjective) - Relating to or believing in the principle that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities. - Synonyms: (equal, democratic, fair)

Hunter gatherer societies, they're typically highly egalitarian.

4. consummate [ˈkɒnsəmət] - (adjective) - Showing a high degree of skill and flair; complete or perfect. - Synonyms: (skilled, proficient, expert)

The Inuit and the Arctic, the aboriginals in Australia, and there, of course, people like the xenrasi engage with the land with consummate skill.

5. intricate [ˈɪntrɪkət] - (adjective) - Very complicated or detailed. - Synonyms: (complex, elaborate, detailed)

Instead will be governed by webs of intricate engagements, some of which are cooperative, some of which are less.

6. intransigent [ɪnˈtrænsɪdʒənt] - (adjective) - Unwilling or refusing to change one's views or to agree about something. - Synonyms: (uncompromising, inflexible, unyielding)

We are both incredibly adaptable and culturally intransigent.

7. marginal [ˈmɑrdʒɪnl] - (adjective) - Minor or not significant enough; close to the bare limit. - Synonyms: (negligible, minimal, minor)

...they are able to do so on the basis of really a marginal amount of effort.

8. climatic [klaɪˈmætɪk] - (adjective) - Relating to climate. - Synonyms: (weather-related, meteorological, atmospheric)

Hunter gatherers went through intensely difficult times, periods of climatic change.

9. humility [hjuːˈmɪlɪti] - (noun) - A modest or low view of one's importance; humbleness. - Synonyms: (modesty, humbleness, meekness)

Rather than praise a successful hunter, they mock them, and the hunter will be expected to behave with great humility.

10. demand sharing [dɪˈmænd ˈʃɛrɪŋ] - (noun) - A social system where resources are shared based on demands rather than accumulation and ownership. - Synonyms: (resource sharing, communal sharing, collective distribution)

Voluntarily given and voluntarily accepted resources were shared openly and evenly and done through a system of demand sharing.

Anthropologist debunks Darwins most abused idea - James Suzman

In many ways, humans are kind of evolutionary freaks. We're much more capable of learning skills than, let's say, our australopithecus ancestors a few million years ago were. When I was 19, I bizarrely ended up getting an internship at a merchant bank. And in that bank, we had a manager, and he would pepper his talks with us with this kind of darwinian language. Banking is a survival of the fittest. You know, it's a dog eat dog world out there. Life is a continuous process of competition. The truth is, evolutionary history just isn't a constant competition. Actually, most animals spend as much time as they can relaxing, taking it easy, or playing and enjoying themselves.

This idea that everything is continuously battling for energy is nonsense. I spent most of the last 25 years documenting hunter gatherers as they took their worldview and tried to engage with our worldview in very uneven terms and to try and make sense of their perceptions of work and our perceptions of work. And what it did was it revealed an entirely different way of thinking, an entirely different way of being. My name is James Susman. I'm an anthropologist, and the title of my latest book is called work a deep history from the Stone Age to the age of robots.

When one thinks about hunter gatherer society, they have imagined a world in which we endured this horrendous struggle for survival. In an Italy eaten world, nature was red in tooth and claw, and life was hard, and we learned to accumulate grab resources. It was a great competition for life, but it seems fairly clear we enjoyed quite a lot of leisure time as hunter gatherers. 20 years ago, I went off to the Kalahari to start working with a group of people called the Jinwasi. The Jinwasi were first hunter gatherer society that were really studied to see how hard they actually worked. And it was revealed that they worked 15 hours in a week and a very different work ethos to what we do here in the west.

The idea of what constitutes work in the way we organize our lives can be very different and very contextual basis. Hunting, gathering, fishing, hiking. In the Zungua world, those are all considered work. In the western world where I come from, at the moment, most of those things are considered leisure activities now. The Inuit and the Arctic, the aboriginals in Australia, and there, of course, people like the xenrasi engage with the land with consummate skill and consummate, in some ways, ease. The Kalahari desert, where the Zhumasi live, is an incredibly tough environment. It's the kind of place where most of us, if we were dumped there without any prior knowledge of how to do things, we would be dead within several days.

The zhumasi, on the other hand, are able somehow out of this seemingly desolate place to pluck out 130 or so different plant species. They're able to hunt 15 or 20 animal species. They are so skilled and so attuned to that environment that they are able to do so on the basis of really a marginal amount of effort. Even in the toughest times of year, you're looking at not spending more than four or 5 hours a day on the food quest, and you're looking at the best times of year. People are able to simply pluck things. It's almost a bit like a, a magical kind of 711.

Now, of course, it sounds a little bit idyllic, and hunter gatherers went through intensely difficult times, periods of climatic change. But for the most part, living off the land seemed a very straightforward way of making a living. And we are supremely adapted to making a living as hunters and gatherers.

Hunter gatherer societies, they're typically highly egalitarian. Richard Lee, an anthropologist who worked with the zhenoisi, he used the word fiercely egalitarian, and I haven't found a better way to describe it. There are no hierarchies whatsoever. Age does not convey any authority to anybody. Gender does not convey any authority to anybody. It's incredibly open and tolerant. People don't force things on children. But they also realize that there's an instinct in particular. They say, not among women, but among men, young men who go out hunting and they bring in their first big animal, they'll strut in and show off.

They'll say that potentially risks upsetting the egalitarian balance that makes the society function. Rather than praise a successful hunter, they mock them. Somebody shows up if they've killed a giraffe, which is something huge, and it's enough to feed everybody for ages, and the meat's drying from the branches, they'll say, ah, this giraffe. There's a bit of a scrawny giraffe, and it stinks a little bit, and there's this great ritual of humility and insult that goes on, and the hunter will be expected to behave with great humility and the way it was described by one man. He said, we use it to gentle young men's hearts to enable leadership to be based purely on context and competence.

Voluntarily given and voluntarily accepted resources were shared openly and evenly and done through a system of demand sharing. In the system of demand sharing, it is in the right of pretty much anybody to go and ask anybody else for a share of what they have. And it is considered extremely rude to turn that person down under any circumstances. It stops any kind of authority. This enabled food and resources to flow very evenly and very quickly through society.

The truth is now very few zoologists, in fact, no zoologist or ecologist, will think of an ecosystem as governed by competition. Instead will be governed by webs of intricate engagements, some of which are cooperative, some of which are less. This idea that nature is a constant competition for life is nonsense. Hunter gatherers like the Zhumoasi describe their environment as a kind of continuous flow of give and take between species interactions.

There's absolutely no denying that the extraordinary attitudes that evolved during the hunter gatherer era have now brought us incredible benefits. We are both incredibly adaptable and culturally intransigent. When change is forced upon us, we're really good at adapting to it, we're amazingly good at doing it, but only when we have no choice. And I think what we might see is a restructuring and reorganization of how societies identities now, which are far more hybridized. We certainly have a work identity through our Zoom channel, but for many people, I think there'll be an opportunity to reengage themselves in the physical space that they are in.

And I think it's going to profoundly reorganize the way we think about community, identity, belonging, and self. Economists say we're all universally this kind of selfish. Anthropologists, on the other hand, take the very starting point of their experience, is based on generally going out and living somewhere where all your most fundamental and basic ideas about how the world works are often turned on their heads. It's a fundamental transition. It upsets your sense of the world.

And anthropologists, I think, are based on having this double perspective of being in one world and from another, and then being able to look back in the world that they're from. And frankly, I think it would be good if we still lived in a world where people could experience another way of living and being, to the point that it makes the strange familiar and the familiar strange get smarter faster. With videos from the world's biggest thinkers.

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