I’m kind of getting frustrated here. Don’t you see that my larger point still holds? Is it also a result of oppression that most of the number systems you name are multiples of ten? Man… try to understand what I’m saying rather than trying to be a smart ass. I did read the wikipedia page. Are you claiming that all number systems are equally likely?
edit: ok rereading your post, you don’t really disagree with the special role of the ten…
Market economy
I did misuse the word. I meant a culture in which trade occurs. I think trade is a natural development and more likely to evolve in larger groups than gift-giving as a primary means of distribution. I concede the point since I made the mistake, but my larger point is that the usefulness of trade informs cultural development independently of groups oppressing each other.
I think everything is an active decision made by those in power at any given time.
I think this is truly the source of our disagreement.
Once any group is in power, they shape culture to reflect their needs and to keep influence and cultural power.
To clarify my own stance: I think culture is indeed shaped by the forces you name, but is much more strongly shaped by human nature and the reality of our lives on earth. I think that many individual decisions can lead to collective forces that we might as well consider forces of nature, and that if we want to make progress we have to deal with them as such.
the element of my argument both jsroberts and yourself are missing is that a natural difference does not have to equal cultural disparity/disadvantage,
I understand that point. All I’m saying is that natural difference CAN equal cultural disparity / disadvantage. Just as you say that men’s physical prowess makes them natural oppressors. I think jsroberts point was that sometimes we have to expend extra effort to work against a natural tendency. I.e., we need umbrellas to stay dry in the rain, and we need special, inventive social arrangements to equalize gender relations. Not all inequalities are the result of groups actively exerting power. Sometimes equality is a hard engineering problem.
