Morality: Part Four - No Longer All for One and One for All

In Morality: Part Three, I mused upon what a primitive society and its morality might look like. But we all know that primitive societies did not remain primitive and that somewhere along the line we got chiefs and kings. We also got religion. There are a lot of variables that take a society from simple hunter-gatherer clan-based to a "civilization". These variables, in general, lead to greater complexity of social interactions, specialization, change from nomadic to settled existence all of which eventually lead to changes in what is viewed as moral or ethical, although some moral views outlive their usefulness and remain as traditions that no one knows the reason for or origin of. What changes in circumstance caused changes in moral outlook?

In a tribal or clan society, furtherance of individual wants is subordinated to the needs of the group simply because the group would die off if all members were not contributing their fair share. One change that changed the way that people interacted was the development of agriculture and the domestication of animals. Domestication of animals was the transition from hunting animals for their meat, skins and other parts, a labor intensive occupation, often occupying all the adults in a clan, to having those animals on hand ready to be slaughtered when their meat was needed. While far from a leisurely activity, tending to a herd of cows or a flock of sheep was very different than hunting the night's dinner one animal at a time. A related activity, at least in its affect, was the development of agriculture. Both of these changes spurred the differentiation of roles as some tribesmen tended the flocks, some raised the crops, some processed the animal products (skins, furs, bones) while others concentrated on preparing the produce for consumption. Bakers of bread and brewers of beer became professions. As the core of the people were no longer nomadic, following the seasonal migrations of the herds, people built permanent dwellings, which spurred more new professions. The need to have fields dedicated to the crops necessitated having a stable territory to control. Some of the hunters transitioned into warriors to protect this territory.

No longer was everyone the same. Now everyone had "their place".