WEBVTT

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Prof: Last time we
started talking about tropical

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places where high productivity
agriculture is generally just

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not possible.

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Hence, without productive
agriculture you can't support

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dense populations.

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Those cultures grew up in
time--in places where plenty of

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land, land was not filled up,
it was people that were scarce.

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While individual women of
course still had to control

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their fertility so that the
children--

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the infants that they had
didn't die and there's many,

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many things that they do for
that.

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The community cultural controls
on fertility are generally

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absent because from the
community point of view you

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always wants to be,
at that time,

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larger and among other reasons
to protect your community from

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the ravages of hostile neighbors
because almost all of these

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communities are--
just read any history of any

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part of the world constant,
constant warfare,

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as we've discussed a lot.

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Of many places in the world,
which one could describe,

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traditional Africa provides
some of the best examples of how

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these cultures operate.

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Again, I want to emphasize that
this a tradition--

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a picture of a traditional time
and things are changing now

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extremely rapidly everywhere in
the world,

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including of course Africa.

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As I showed you last time,
Africa really is different than

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the rest of the world.

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I showed statistics comparing
Morocco on the north coast of

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Africa, included in the
Mediterranean cultural zone.

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You cross the Sahara,
you're in Niger,

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or you're in Mali,
and totally different

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situation.

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The number of children is much
high--

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people have is much higher,
I showed you that,

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the number of children that
they want is much higher,

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infant mortality has come down
in both places,

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in Morocco the fertility
responds to it,

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in Niger the fertility does not
respond to it.

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While we're going--so we're
going to discuss this region and

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using a lot of generalizations
which will not fit any

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particular culture.

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If you add up all the birthrate
statistics, Sub-Saharan African

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has about twice the birth rate
of North Africa.

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Again, it's all Suni Muslim
we're talking about,

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so religion is not the
difference, but the something

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else about the southern culture
which we've been talking about.

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It probably starts with the
agriculture and then goes into

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other fields.

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Of all the things that are
changing in Africa,

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fertility--the attitudes toward
fertility--

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again I'm always using
fertility as the number of

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children a woman actually has
and not her ability to have

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children.

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The attitudes towards fertility
are sort of the most resistant

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to change.

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These societies have what you
might call a culture of

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reproduction in which the
central idea is that of lineage,

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a family and its line of male
ancestors.

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The prime duty in these
cultures is to keep the lineage

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going.

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Of course you've all read stuff
about China, China is

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not--traditional China is not
particularly different than

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this.

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The important thing is to
provide descendants for the

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ancestors.

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Not only is your own future--if
you don't have the son as your

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own future as a shade,
as sort of a spirit that hovers

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around,
is dependent on continuation of

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the line.

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The whole history of ancestors,
stretching back,

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is dependent on your having
descendants.

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The future line which is
perceived as sort of almost in

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existence,
of potential existence,

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the whole line from the distant
past going through you to the

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distant future is all dependent
on you having descendants,

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male descendants in the line.

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The central purpose,
the central goal,

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the central job of existence is
to continue this line of

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fertility.

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Now the traditional religion is
based on this lineage idea.

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Because it's your own--the gods
are in a sense your own

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ancestors,
people that you knew,

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people that you talk too,
they stay more close to you

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after they die.

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Unlike Western gods where you
pray but it's never clear

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whether your prayers are being
answered or not,

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in an ancestor worship
situation, the answer is right

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there,
and you can talk back and forth

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with them.

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They're not distant,
eerie, supernatural kind of

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characters but rather like a
grandfather who just stays near

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us after his death.

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This kind of description comes
from the ethnographers,

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the anthropologists that go and
talk to the people in these

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traditional cultures.

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The lineage head,
who is almost always the old--

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often the oldest male member of
the lineage,

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he often can communicate
directly with these ancestors or

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there may be a soothsayer in the
community and then the head man

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will commission the soothsayer
to ask the ancestors some

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particular question.

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The ancestors are quite
available to discuss the most

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ordinary and mundane issues of
life or they can discuss very

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weighty affairs.

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This doesn't require waiting
for some big holiday or some

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huge amount of time,
it can be--the whole thing can

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be transacted in 15 minutes or
maybe a half an hour.

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Sometimes they're contacted,
they provide their answers,

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and you've got the answer that
you need.

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One of the interesting,
with respect to this course,

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one of the interesting things
that goes on is that family

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planning is being introduced
into Africa,

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has been now for quite a while,
and it's becoming available.

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The people are thinking it
over; it's a hot topic.

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They're discussing it,
they're trying to figure out

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whether it's good for them or
not,

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whether it's permissible for
them or not,

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what's going to happen if you
use it,

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what's going to happen if you
don't use it.

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It's a very hot topic and of
course they want the wisdom of

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the ancestors on this.

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In the middle of this,
one set of demographers went

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into--
in Ghana there's a group of

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Nankana--
the name of the people there,

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and they went into their
villages and they wanted to see

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how this worked out.

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If this discussion with the
ancestors, as they call the

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traditional religion,
would be hostile to the

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introduction of family planning
because elsewhere in the world

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of course the more conservative
the more--

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it doesn't depend on the
individual religion,

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a particular religion as I have
said and will say again,

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but it does depend on the
religiosity of the person.

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The more religious a person is,
in almost any tradition,

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the more hostile they will be
to change,

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and in particular to the
adoption of new reproductive

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practices like family planning.

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They're interested in this
issue how this would work out in

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traditional villages in Africa.

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He asked the village head
man--one of the

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anthropologists--to inquire of
the spirits how many children

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should a family have;
a simple question.

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Here's what the spirit said,
"Listen to what I have to

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say, children are the lineage,
if there are no children the

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lineage will end.

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We ancestors want many children;
the women should give birth to

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many children."

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That was a pretty clear answer;
there was no futzing around

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with that one.

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But being Western skeptics,
they didn't really believe that

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the ancestor was saying that,
so he was saying,

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well the headman put into the
mouths of the spirits whatever

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the headman believed,
and that was not--made the

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anthropologists quite satisfied
with this.

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He was a good scientist and he
did the control experiment,

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he asked the headman,
the same headman who had just

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reported the conservative views
of the ancestors.

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Well what do you think,
he got a completely different

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answer.

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"Women need to have just
enough children.

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Currently it is very difficult
to fend for the children.

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There's no food to feed them.

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If they are in school it is
difficult to pay their school

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fees and to buy them school
uniforms.

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Taking them to the hospital
when they are sick demands a lot

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of money.

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That is why we need to give
birth to few children."

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Well that's a little different
take, and so then the

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demographer's brain starts
rolling and says;

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now I got the scene,
now I got it right.

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The ancestors are giving the
traditional point of view,

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well that's true,
that was what the older

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generation believed,
but the headmen are part of the

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current generation and they're
going to take current views into

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consideration and take a more
moderate view.

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They interviewed the next--they
went to the next village and

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interviewed the next lineage
head and that hypothesis didn't

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stand up.

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Speaking for himself,
the headman said,

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"I would like them to have
many children because a large

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following it makes one a chief.

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There is power in numbers."

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This is the idea that if you
have only a few people in your

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village you're not very
powerful,

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your neighbors can ignore you,
they can take advantage of you,

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but if you have a big set of
descendants and a big family and

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extended family,
a big village then you're a

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powerful chief and he wanted
children so that he would be

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powerful.

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But then this same guy was
asked to see what the ancestors

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have to say about it,
and the ancestors said,

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"Everybody should have a
small number of children,

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but they should not refuse to
have children altogether."

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Since the ancestors are close
at hand,

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it's perfectly reasonable that
they're aware of current trends,

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and one of the ancestors said,
"It is now difficult to

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get an education as well as to
do farming.

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If a problem crops up and the
child is sick then money is

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everything.

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You have to buy medicine,"
meaning modern medicine,

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"And even if you go to the
herbalist,"

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traditional medicine,
"You need to take a

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fowl," a chicken or
something,

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"along to pay for the
treatment.

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It's no longer the same as in
the olden days when everybody

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did farming."

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That's the ancestor speaking,
very well aware of current

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trends and problems.

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After they interviewed a whole
lot of these Nankana villages in

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Ghana they summarized the
research,

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and the result was no pattern
of responses at all.

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Sometime the headman and his
ancestors they agreed;

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sometimes they disagreed;
sometimes it was the ancestor

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taking the conservative line;
sometimes it was the headman

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taking the conservative line.

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It was indeed like a discussion
between a man and say his

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grandfather that was going on
and they will have different

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points of view and individuals
will be different.

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This contact with the ancestors
seems quite natural.

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You read this story--you hear
this story as 'oh my God,' but

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it's perfectly natural to the
people.

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These people in northern Ghana
they have no word for

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supernatural.

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It just doesn't exist.

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They don't have any--they don't
have scientific explanations for

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anything,
so all explanations are sort of

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somewhere floating around,
some are empirical and

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observational,
and some of them are

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supernatural,
and so there's no boundary

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between these kinds of
explanations for things,

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and so they don't have such a
word and they don't distinguish

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these kinds of discussions with
the ancestors from real things,

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real dreams or daydreams or
anything else.

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It's all a very fluid kind of
thing.

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To people living in that kind
of a culture the Western idea of

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an unwavering set of rules,
cast in stone in some book

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thousands of years ago,
like the Bible,

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like the Koran,
would seem ludicrous to

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Nankana.

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To them, our system of a book
that says everything you need to

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know is as crazy as our view of
them talking to the ancestors.

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You should then compare this
kind of individualistic,

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flexible style of religion to
the mass monotheistic religions

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that we have in the northern
temperate zones,

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at least the Western northern
temperate zones.

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These religions are all part of
a big political structure which

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requires uniformity of the
subjects of some king,

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or some emperor,
and submission to that person.

13:29.288 --> 13:31.048
Of course, as you probably all
know,

13:31.048 --> 13:36.938
the word Islam itself means
'submission' and the ideal in

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monotheistic religions is
often--

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13:59.899 --> 14:02.339
notice the uniformity.

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This is women at prayer and
notice the--

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as you see--when you see a
bigger picture of this there's

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just a sea of women at some big
event all dressed identically,

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all looking identical.

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When I was in Morocco I got a
little instruction book that is

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given to children about how to
pray,

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and every detail is specified
down to when you bow down during

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prayer the position of the toes
is specified--

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are they curled under,
are they spread out,

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you have to know that.

14:31.308 --> 14:36.338
Conformity is a very important
part of mass religion.

14:36.340 --> 14:39.850
Of course in the west how is
conformity enforced in

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Christianity?

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You burn the heretics,
a long history of burning and

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killing by the dominant church,
wherever it is,

14:48.464 --> 14:50.454
you just slaughter the people
that--

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even on very tiny theological
differences if they don't

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believe exactly as the
authorities think they should

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believe,
off with their head,

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so it's a very different kind
of pattern of cultural

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understanding of religion and
ancestors and the world.

15:14.788 --> 15:20.628
Given this intensity of
devotion to the lineage,

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the main virtue in Africa then
is fertility.

15:26.350 --> 15:30.950
The main sin is to be barren,
is not have children.

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An inability to have children,
barrenness, is not just a

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passive thing that happens to
you but it's punishment for

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something bad that you have
done.

15:44.288 --> 15:48.428
There's very little distinction
between infertility,

15:48.428 --> 15:51.078
the woman just can't get
pregnant, and of course they

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don't accept the idea that it
might be the man's fault,

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but the woman doesn't get
pregnant,

15:55.350 --> 15:57.610
she's infertile,
she has miscarriages,

15:57.610 --> 15:59.580
goes partway through the
pregnancy,

15:59.580 --> 16:01.230
or infant deaths.

16:01.230 --> 16:04.490
The important thing is to have
descendants who can carry on the

16:04.488 --> 16:07.638
line and however--
whatever the mechanism is by

16:07.636 --> 16:10.346
which a man or woman,
or the family,

16:10.345 --> 16:12.945
is incapable of having
descendants,

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that's the worst sin and it's
your fault.

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It's not a passive thing that
happens to you.

16:19.009 --> 16:24.559
Barren women can be divorced,
they can be shunned,

16:24.558 --> 16:27.058
and sometimes they need
to--they're not even allowed to

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live in the center of the
village because--

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of course they have no
scientific explanation for

16:31.283 --> 16:33.403
barrenness,
but maybe it's catching in some

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sense,
either by evil spirits which

16:35.235 --> 16:38.125
are keeping the woman from
getting pregnant and you don't

16:38.125 --> 16:40.185
want the evil spirits to attack
you,

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or some other reason they can
often be required to live on the

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edge of the village.

16:49.149 --> 16:52.009
Given this emphasis on,
one way or another,

16:52.014 --> 16:54.814
getting pregnant,
monogamy is not strictly

16:54.812 --> 16:58.362
enforced;
it's not the kind of obsession

16:58.355 --> 17:00.475
that it is in the West.

17:00.480 --> 17:03.450
Here's a wonderful
story--recent 2000,

17:03.451 --> 17:06.751
this is The People Newspaper
from Nairobi,

17:06.746 --> 17:07.546
Kenya.

17:07.548 --> 17:11.558
"A group of women stormed
the Kenya police station to

17:11.559 --> 17:15.849
demand that officers either make
love to them or close illegal

17:15.853 --> 17:17.123
drinking dens.

17:17.118 --> 17:24.038
They said the drinking made
their husbands impotent.

17:24.038 --> 17:29.068
The women said the population
of the district was falling off

17:29.071 --> 17:33.771
as a result of the poor sexual
performance of the men.

17:33.769 --> 17:37.519
The women,"
it was Kanda actually,

17:37.519 --> 17:40.329
north of Nairobi,
"brought the businesses in

17:40.326 --> 17:43.126
town to a halt with their
daylong protest against

17:43.132 --> 17:45.532
excessive drinking by their men
folk.

17:45.529 --> 17:48.539
'Our men have turned to
vegetables;

17:48.538 --> 17:51.098
they leave home early and come
back intoxicated.

17:51.098 --> 17:53.438
There is no one to meet the
sexual needs of the

17:53.436 --> 17:57.246
wives.'"
Guess which group it was where

17:57.250 --> 17:59.550
these women came from?

17:59.548 --> 18:02.808
It was 24 Catholic Church
groups in Kenya.

18:02.808 --> 18:07.478
They came together and demanded
that the officer in charge of

18:07.482 --> 18:12.392
the police station order his men
to make love to these women.

18:12.390 --> 18:17.790
The newspaper discretely does
not say how the police responded

18:17.786 --> 18:19.286
to this demand.

18:19.288 --> 18:23.518
Now--so the women must be
fertile and the men must be

18:23.523 --> 18:27.923
believed to be potent or
fertile, of course it's harder

18:27.922 --> 18:31.182
to tell whether the man is or
isn't.

18:31.180 --> 18:34.550
The men of course,
in a sense, want to keep the

18:34.548 --> 18:38.208
fertility of the women for
themselves but it's more

18:38.211 --> 18:42.391
important to have children no
matter who is the biological

18:42.386 --> 18:43.336
father.

18:43.338 --> 18:48.068
Not only in the family but once
a child is born,

18:48.068 --> 18:51.428
perhaps under obviously
uncertain circumstances,

18:51.430 --> 18:54.010
the village will accept--the
community accepts the children.

18:54.009 --> 19:00.319
They need people;
they want strength in numbers,

19:00.317 --> 19:06.127
and so promiscuity is not
frowned on particularly by the

19:06.126 --> 19:07.496
community.

19:07.500 --> 19:10.270
Everybody knows it goes on and
just keeps quiet.

19:10.269 --> 19:16.319
I was reading this week and
last a history of a Lesotho.

19:16.318 --> 19:19.008
How many--Lesotho is a small
country--you've been there?

19:19.009 --> 19:21.769
No, okay.

19:21.769 --> 19:25.289
A small enclave totally
surrounded by South Africa.

19:25.288 --> 19:31.348
This was a history before the
Europeans came about the 1700s.

19:31.348 --> 19:34.018
There was a king then and the
king,

19:34.019 --> 19:36.919
it was a very small group at
that time,

19:36.920 --> 19:40.900
not much more than a village,
and when the third son--

19:40.900 --> 19:44.260
this is sort of a quote,
"When the third son of the

19:44.256 --> 19:47.796
king died he left a widow who
was still of childbearing age

19:47.795 --> 19:49.865
but had no surviving children.

19:49.868 --> 19:53.008
By custom the widow should have
gone to live with her husband's

19:53.012 --> 19:55.902
younger brother so that she
could continue the seed of her

19:55.903 --> 19:57.073
dead husband."

19:57.068 --> 20:01.428
Exactly as we see in the Old
Testament that we talked about

20:01.428 --> 20:02.328
last time.

20:02.328 --> 20:05.978
The widow didn't agree and she
went off and actually got

20:05.981 --> 20:10.101
pregnant by sort of a no good
who wasn't even of that tribe.

20:10.098 --> 20:16.258
Now this is a real no-no
and--but nevertheless the child,

20:16.259 --> 20:19.019
since that woman was legally
part of a certain lineage,

20:19.019 --> 20:23.299
that child by someone who
wasn't even a member of the

20:23.304 --> 20:28.414
tribe and against the convention
was still accepted as a member

20:28.413 --> 20:31.053
of the king's lineage there.

20:31.048 --> 20:34.968
It turns that the child of
this--illegitimate in a sense--

20:34.970 --> 20:38.490
child became the greatest king
that Lesotho has ever known,

20:38.490 --> 20:44.160
a very important guy named
Moshoeshoe.

20:44.160 --> 20:48.050
Moshoeshoe himself,
the grandson of the time I'm

20:48.050 --> 20:51.610
talking about,
he was reputed to have 140 to

20:51.609 --> 20:52.769
200 wives.

20:52.769 --> 20:54.469
You read the history,
they of course--

20:54.470 --> 20:56.660
they have whatever written
records they have and the first

20:56.656 --> 20:58.886
one says well--
when he was young he has 35

20:58.892 --> 21:03.012
wives, then he has 80 wives,
and every time this is reported

21:03.011 --> 21:06.141
as he gets older,
and probably accumulates more

21:06.144 --> 21:08.624
wives,
the number goes up.

21:08.619 --> 21:10.619
The last report was 200 wives.

21:10.618 --> 21:12.918
Of course we don't know
anything about the accuracy of

21:12.915 --> 21:13.215
this.

21:13.220 --> 21:17.390
But it was said most of his
latter wives were regarded as

21:17.391 --> 21:19.031
distinctly inferior.

21:19.028 --> 21:22.638
Moshoeshoe would summon
whomever he wished to spend the

21:22.641 --> 21:25.721
night with him,
and he undoubtedly sired a vast

21:25.717 --> 21:26.517
progeny.

21:26.519 --> 21:30.029
He also offered these lesser
wives to visitors for the night

21:30.030 --> 21:33.160
by way of hospitality,
but according to custom,

21:33.157 --> 21:36.707
any children these visitors
produced were regarded as

21:36.709 --> 21:38.689
Moshoeshoe's own children.

21:38.690 --> 21:45.580
Again, in the West,
chastity, monogamy is valued,

21:45.578 --> 21:48.448
who the father is.

21:48.450 --> 21:52.120
In under-populated cultures,
in cultures that have responded

21:52.116 --> 21:55.656
to under population it's the
children that are wanted,

21:55.660 --> 22:00.460
and the mechanism of
biologically fathering a child

22:00.460 --> 22:02.860
is much less important.

22:02.858 --> 22:05.278
I experienced this myself quite
surprisingly.

22:05.278 --> 22:08.038
I think I mentioned I had been
in Borneo living with some

22:08.040 --> 22:10.560
headhunters for a while,
and I got along pretty well

22:10.556 --> 22:11.736
with the young guys.

22:11.740 --> 22:14.790
Sort of the guys stay together
and so after I was there a

22:14.786 --> 22:17.666
little bit they offered me their
sisters and said,

22:17.670 --> 22:21.360
'you shouldn't be sleeping
alone,' and for discretion,

22:21.359 --> 22:25.539
I won't tell you what happened.

22:25.538 --> 22:30.668
Even nowadays many African
scholars maintain that African

22:30.674 --> 22:35.904
societies don't even really
distinguish between legitimate

22:35.902 --> 22:38.472
and illegitimate births.

22:38.470 --> 22:42.890
15% to 25% of women in various
west and east African countries,

22:42.890 --> 22:46.090
including Kenya for instance,
report premarital births,

22:46.088 --> 22:50.368
so they may or may not marry
the guy that's there before

22:50.365 --> 22:51.215
marriage.

22:51.220 --> 22:55.030
As all these estimates of
behavior that is now becoming

22:55.030 --> 22:58.840
with the Christianization and
the Islamization becoming

22:58.844 --> 23:03.524
somewhat questionable,
if the official statistics are

23:03.518 --> 23:08.038
15% to 25% for sure it's a lot
larger than that.

23:08.038 --> 23:13.808
Of course the husband again
isn't really wildly happy about

23:13.814 --> 23:20.094
all this playing around and--but
what's most important to him is

23:20.086 --> 23:21.576
his status.

23:21.578 --> 23:25.308
Again, the biological parentage
of the child is less important.

23:25.308 --> 23:29.038
He knows whatever child his
wife has will be officially his,

23:29.044 --> 23:32.404
but he doesn't want to get to
be known as impotent.

23:32.400 --> 23:35.560
His potency is what matters to
him.

23:35.558 --> 23:40.018
As long as the woman--and this
happens a lot because very often

23:40.017 --> 23:43.897
the man is quite significantly
older than the wife,

23:43.900 --> 23:47.090
especially younger--as he gets
older and accumulates more

23:47.086 --> 23:48.656
wives,
then younger wives,

23:48.661 --> 23:51.791
and so his potency may really
be flagging quite a bit,

23:51.789 --> 23:53.639
so it's a real concern.

23:53.640 --> 23:58.320
As long as--if the wife--as
long as the wife is discreet and

23:58.317 --> 24:03.067
doesn't make a public display
that this kid is really someone

24:03.074 --> 24:05.774
else's then not a big problem.

24:05.769 --> 24:09.749
The legal father accepts the
child;

24:09.750 --> 24:13.810
the community accepts the child.

24:13.808 --> 24:16.108
Anthropologists of course
thought this was very

24:16.108 --> 24:19.428
interesting and they--
one wonderful--Susan Watkins

24:19.431 --> 24:22.311
from The University of
Pennsylvania,

24:22.308 --> 24:26.348
a sociologist,
works in Kenya in the Luo,

24:26.348 --> 24:28.428
with the Luo on the west of
Kenya;

24:28.430 --> 24:29.830
Luo people.

24:29.828 --> 24:34.578
She got together a focus group
of women to discuss this issue.

24:34.578 --> 24:36.688
It's a long thing,
I'll just tell you a little bit

24:36.685 --> 24:38.605
from it,
and so Susan says,

24:38.612 --> 24:42.322
"So sometimes women were
unfaithful,"

24:42.321 --> 24:46.841
pretending a Western
perspective and the women said,

24:46.838 --> 24:49.618
"Yes being unfaithful
started a long time ago,"

24:49.624 --> 24:52.064
another woman:
"Long ago the older woman,

24:52.058 --> 24:54.508
the elder women,
would tell us that the only

24:54.506 --> 24:57.686
time you could sleep with
another man was if your husband

24:57.691 --> 24:59.911
was not able to make you
pregnant,

24:59.910 --> 25:03.850
but it's not that way
anymore."

25:03.848 --> 25:07.308
The moderator again asks,
"Once you got the baby of

25:07.310 --> 25:10.080
the other man,
was it for your husband or the

25:10.080 --> 25:11.340
other man?"

25:11.338 --> 25:14.348
Notice the for is taken for
granted that this is a gift,

25:14.346 --> 25:17.346
and who did you make the gift
for, is it a gift for your

25:17.353 --> 25:19.543
husband or a gift for the other
man.

25:19.538 --> 25:23.258
The women are somewhat
incredulous, "Of course it

25:23.257 --> 25:24.797
is for your husband.

25:24.798 --> 25:27.468
The other man is just like a
bull;

25:27.470 --> 25:32.390
doesn't your cow wander and
mate with another bull from the

25:32.394 --> 25:33.504
next field?

25:33.500 --> 25:37.830
When the cow gives birth,
is the calf yours or is the

25:37.827 --> 25:40.737
calf the owner of the other
bull?

25:40.740 --> 25:43.250
Of course it's yours."

25:43.250 --> 25:44.400
All the women join in.

25:44.400 --> 25:47.940
It's a wonderful kind of little
story.

25:47.940 --> 25:50.900
In this the women are kind of
incredulous that Susan Watkins

25:50.895 --> 25:52.545
herself does not have any cows.

25:52.548 --> 25:57.468
They sort of presume that in
their answers that she does.

25:57.470 --> 26:02.090
It's also pretty obvious how
sort of matter of fact the women

26:02.085 --> 26:05.075
are about men's limited
biological role,

26:05.084 --> 26:06.704
as one might say.

26:06.700 --> 26:10.150
There's no romanticization of
the relationship,

26:10.153 --> 26:14.363
none of the Western fetish
about biological paternity.

26:14.358 --> 26:18.798
Not only is extra-marital
fertility not frowned on in the

26:18.803 --> 26:22.463
same way that is,
at least officially here in the

26:22.461 --> 26:26.121
West,
but premarital promiscuity is

26:26.118 --> 26:28.648
reasonably acceptable.

26:28.650 --> 26:32.110
Maybe not surprisingly,
you all know about truck

26:32.113 --> 26:36.463
drivers going around spreading
AIDS from village to village,

26:36.461 --> 26:38.821
guess who else spreads AIDS?

26:38.819 --> 26:42.219
School teachers;
so a school teacher is someone

26:42.217 --> 26:44.997
who has an education,
has been perhaps in the capital

26:45.000 --> 26:47.690
or some big city,
has actually been to some sort

26:47.690 --> 26:49.850
of secondary or college
education,

26:49.848 --> 26:52.838
and has an income,
a white collar job,

26:52.838 --> 26:54.678
a steady income from the
government--

26:54.680 --> 26:56.360
teachers are in much demand.

26:56.358 --> 26:59.078
This is a very high status
person and he's

26:59.080 --> 27:02.800
assigned--finishes college,
he's assigned to some village

27:02.798 --> 27:03.858
in the bush.

27:03.858 --> 27:07.018
He's maybe the--the only--the
highest status person,

27:07.018 --> 27:10.608
so what do the parents of all
the eligible daughters do?

27:10.608 --> 27:14.668
They bring their daughter to
them and offer him,

27:14.673 --> 27:19.263
'try out my daughter,' and
which sometimes they do and

27:19.258 --> 27:21.418
sometimes they don't.

27:21.420 --> 27:26.570
The statistics are now very
clear that these teachers have

27:26.571 --> 27:31.821
picked up AIDS in the city and
they are one of the roots of

27:31.816 --> 27:34.976
spreading AIDS in the villages.

27:34.980 --> 27:37.930
Along with this loose attitude
toward paternity,

27:37.932 --> 27:41.332
toward who is exactly the
father, the children then are

27:41.327 --> 27:44.027
held a lot to a large degree in
common.

27:44.029 --> 27:46.919
The idea of a nuclear family,
we have a mother and a father

27:46.922 --> 27:50.272
of well defined pair,
their children no question

27:50.268 --> 27:56.568
about who are their children,
an idea of a nuclear family is

27:56.567 --> 27:58.807
not common there.

27:58.808 --> 28:04.418
30% to 50%--when they survey,
30% to 50% of the children are

28:04.423 --> 28:09.853
not living in the compound with
their biological mother or

28:09.846 --> 28:12.316
father in either case.

28:12.318 --> 28:32.588
Nuclear family is--very,
very simple things define a

28:32.592 --> 28:39.352
nuclear family.

28:39.348 --> 28:43.328
How frequently does he eat his
main meal--does a man eat his

28:43.334 --> 28:45.094
main meal with his wife?

28:45.089 --> 28:46.379
This gets studied.

28:46.380 --> 28:49.140
How often he eats his main meal
with his children?

28:49.140 --> 28:52.040
These are things that we take
just absolutely for granted.

28:52.038 --> 28:55.618
How frequently does his wife go
with him when he visits friends?

28:55.618 --> 28:59.108
How frequently does his wife go
with him when he visits

28:59.113 --> 28:59.893
relatives?

28:59.890 --> 29:03.460
How much of his free time does
he spend with his wife and

29:03.458 --> 29:04.158
children?

29:04.160 --> 29:07.670
The studies of this over the
years, there's a good study in

29:07.665 --> 29:10.685
Kenya for instance,
and the answer to all these are

29:10.689 --> 29:12.079
"rarely".

29:12.078 --> 29:18.568
There's a very low degree of
nucleation of the families.

29:18.568 --> 29:22.138
Again, this is changing and
families are becoming more and

29:22.137 --> 29:25.707
more nucleated and one of the
things that's studied is the

29:25.707 --> 29:28.957
percentage of people in
marriages that are considered

29:28.962 --> 29:29.842
nuclear.

29:29.838 --> 29:33.608
The last statistic that I saw
was 21%--only about one-fifth of

29:33.606 --> 29:36.816
families were what we would call
nuclear families.

29:36.818 --> 29:42.568
Just that idea of a tight-knit
family, exclusive in many ways,

29:42.570 --> 29:46.060
is just not a common sort of
thing.

29:46.058 --> 29:51.318
Another result of this attitude
is what we might call

29:51.324 --> 29:53.454
quasi-prostitution.

29:53.450 --> 29:57.750
In that traditional system the
father, the husband,

29:57.751 --> 30:03.001
is not necessarily required to
provide economic support to the

30:03.000 --> 30:04.120
children.

30:04.118 --> 30:06.518
He is probably a rich man or
has some land,

30:06.515 --> 30:09.475
he gives that to his wife,
if he has several wives he

30:09.480 --> 30:11.420
divides it up among the wives.

30:11.420 --> 30:14.070
They then grow the food on the
land;

30:14.068 --> 30:17.428
they also have to do some work
on his land because men don't

30:17.433 --> 30:19.493
want to work,
and so the wife has the

30:19.487 --> 30:21.537
responsibility for the children.

30:21.538 --> 30:25.558
She must get the money for
health, she must get the money

30:25.555 --> 30:28.485
for education,
she does the farming on her

30:28.493 --> 30:29.143
land.

30:29.140 --> 30:32.420
This puts the women in
difficult strait and they're

30:32.415 --> 30:36.215
always needing resources and if
another man can come in and

30:36.217 --> 30:39.687
provide some resources for her
and her children,

30:39.690 --> 30:41.760
well that's okay.

30:41.759 --> 30:45.589
And so a fair amount of sex
involves, shall we say,

30:45.586 --> 30:47.496
a gift from the person.

30:47.500 --> 30:51.840
It's certainly not considered
prostitution in that culture but

30:51.842 --> 30:54.122
we might use that word for it.

30:54.118 --> 30:59.848
It's a very necessary part of
the whole system that resources

30:59.848 --> 31:05.768
can come into the mother/child
family other than from the legal

31:05.769 --> 31:10.449
husband who may or may not
provide very much.

31:10.450 --> 31:15.030
Now all of the--the whole way
this society is set up favors

31:15.025 --> 31:19.675
having a large number of
children in many different ways.

31:19.680 --> 31:22.060
For instance,
consider land tenure.

31:22.058 --> 31:25.358
The idea of private property
that one guy owns one plot of

31:25.356 --> 31:27.966
land,
it's a new idea there and

31:27.971 --> 31:32.881
traditionally the village or the
community held a bunch of

31:32.876 --> 31:33.906
property.

31:33.910 --> 31:36.910
They would defend this against
other villages,

31:36.910 --> 31:40.210
so in a sense it was some
communities' property,

31:40.210 --> 31:44.730
and there was constant raiding
and constant contestation,

31:44.730 --> 31:47.710
but they would try to defend
their territory.

31:47.710 --> 31:51.310
Within the territory the land
did not belong to any individual

31:51.307 --> 31:54.727
and this was totally rational
because again very high death

31:54.730 --> 31:56.910
rates,
hard to keep people alive,

31:56.912 --> 32:00.092
so one family would die out,
have no descendants,

32:00.088 --> 32:02.978
another family would have many
children.

32:02.980 --> 32:07.830
So each generation the land
just gets redistributed;

32:07.828 --> 32:10.608
more or less equal amounts of
land per child,

32:10.609 --> 32:14.209
however many children that you
have, and again land is not

32:14.212 --> 32:15.732
especially limiting.

32:15.730 --> 32:20.930
The result is that if a male
wants to be powerful and have a

32:20.928 --> 32:25.058
lot of land,
which means that if one part of

32:25.057 --> 32:28.227
land goes fallow for some
reason,

32:28.230 --> 32:30.050
he has other land,
so he wants to have a lot of

32:30.053 --> 32:30.493
children.

32:30.490 --> 32:34.680
They all are guaranteed land,
and the more children he has,

32:34.680 --> 32:38.650
sons usually the case,
the more his financial

32:38.654 --> 32:41.414
security,
his hunger security,

32:41.413 --> 32:43.343
and his power goes up.

32:43.338 --> 32:49.538
The society supports this by
giving land to whatever children

32:49.538 --> 32:50.778
there are.

32:50.779 --> 32:55.409
This is now breaking up because
it's becoming impossible,

32:55.411 --> 33:00.461
and again, there are studies in
Kenya that in 1981 the average

33:00.455 --> 33:03.015
land holding was 5.1 acres.

33:03.019 --> 33:07.039
The agronomists say,
and the local people are aware

33:07.036 --> 33:09.796
of this,
that about 4 acres of--with

33:09.801 --> 33:12.801
their technology of farming at
that time,

33:12.798 --> 33:17.508
about 4 acres of good land are
required,

33:17.509 --> 33:20.779
and intense cultivation you
have to really work it,

33:20.778 --> 33:25.168
were required to support a
family of the size of the

33:25.173 --> 33:27.073
father's generation.

33:27.068 --> 33:31.758
Even at that time the system
was to divide the land more or

33:31.756 --> 33:34.176
less equally among the sons.

33:34.180 --> 33:39.280
Well if you take 5.1 acres and
the average number of children

33:39.277 --> 33:42.927
was four you get down to about
one acre,

33:42.930 --> 33:48.500
which is way below the amount
of land that can support a

33:48.498 --> 33:49.408
family.

33:49.410 --> 33:54.440
A crisis has eventuated and a
variety of things happened that

33:54.444 --> 33:57.554
when the economy is good in
Kenya,

33:57.548 --> 34:00.598
which is occasionally,
there are jobs in the cities

34:00.596 --> 34:03.336
and everyone hopes that one of
their sons,

34:03.338 --> 34:06.408
at least one will go off to the
city and get a job and send back

34:06.409 --> 34:08.989
remittances,
but a lot of the time the

34:08.989 --> 34:13.059
economy is bad and the sons have
to stay on the land,

34:13.059 --> 34:17.919
or migrate to the city without
a job and become this kind of

34:17.920 --> 34:19.570
urban proletariat.

34:19.570 --> 34:34.230
Under the influence of this
pressure the number of children

34:34.228 --> 34:38.758
that of--
the average males wants has

34:38.755 --> 34:41.145
gone down from five to about
three,

34:41.150 --> 34:44.210
but still if you have two or
three acres and you divide it up

34:44.208 --> 34:46.348
three ways it's an impossible
situation.

34:46.349 --> 34:50.509
The sons cannot live on the
land that you have given.

34:50.510 --> 34:53.050
So while everybody is
aware--there's no ignorance or

34:53.045 --> 34:55.705
stupidity involved--
everybody is aware of the

34:55.713 --> 34:59.123
situation,
the cultural prodding is so

34:59.117 --> 35:02.017
strong,
the history is so strong that

35:02.023 --> 35:06.003
the father's don't want to
reduce their desire for sons.

35:06.000 --> 35:11.610
What has actually happened is
the number of sons desired has

35:11.614 --> 35:15.664
shrunk but from 4.5 to three,
and currently,

35:15.659 --> 35:20.089
if they divide up their land
each child gets a half an acre,

35:20.090 --> 35:24.800
whereas four are necessary to
support the family.

35:24.800 --> 35:28.440
In respect to the work on the
farm,

35:28.440 --> 35:32.080
that the man will usually own
it, that varies in different

35:32.077 --> 35:35.257
parts of Africa,
own it in some sense while he's

35:35.264 --> 35:35.714
alive.

35:35.710 --> 35:39.590
It goes back to the village on
his death.

35:39.590 --> 35:43.770
In this slash and burn
agriculture that really

35:43.766 --> 35:48.306
pre-modern people use,
the women do almost all the

35:48.313 --> 35:49.153
work.

35:49.150 --> 35:52.130
The only thing that the men do
is work that women are basically

35:52.132 --> 35:55.242
physically incapable of doing,
which in this case if you're

35:55.235 --> 35:57.385
living in the forest,
is clearing the land,

35:57.391 --> 36:00.921
chopping down the trees,
hauling away the logs,

36:00.918 --> 36:03.208
and this the men do.

36:03.210 --> 36:08.970
It's heavy labor but it lasts
about two weeks out of the year

36:08.974 --> 36:15.034
and the whole rest of the year
it's the women doing the work.

36:15.030 --> 36:20.660
This--and men don't like--in
traditional these--

36:20.659 --> 36:23.439
I mean traditional--every
period is traditional,

36:23.436 --> 36:26.736
some period it is traditional,
but whatever period you're

36:26.742 --> 36:30.412
talking about is traditional to
some later period so it's not a

36:30.405 --> 36:31.405
great term.

36:31.409 --> 36:37.259
Giving you a comparison in 1784
when the United States was being

36:37.257 --> 36:40.447
settled,
there were 6,000 Iroquois

36:40.452 --> 36:45.672
spread across New York state but
they were competing for land

36:45.666 --> 36:49.836
with 240,000 New Yorkers of
European descent;

36:49.840 --> 36:52.930
6,000 versus 240,000.

36:52.929 --> 36:55.379
One tribe, the Oneida from
upstate--

36:55.380 --> 37:00.390
and I was actually born up
there, had only 600 members to

37:00.389 --> 37:04.859
the whole tribe,
but they inhabited 6,000,000

37:04.856 --> 37:06.336
acres of land.

37:06.340 --> 37:11.470
This is what's talked about by
population--low population

37:11.465 --> 37:15.215
density, 600 people on 6,000,000
acres.

37:15.219 --> 37:17.979
As in Africa,
the women did most of the

37:17.983 --> 37:22.283
farming, they had a kind of
slash and burn agriculture also,

37:22.275 --> 37:25.325
and the women did most of the
farming.

37:25.329 --> 37:29.039
Well some of the colonists were
friendly to the Indians and

37:29.036 --> 37:32.736
wanted to help the Indians so
they would suggest repeatedly

37:32.742 --> 37:35.302
that why don't you take up
farming,

37:35.300 --> 37:38.820
that with your hunter and
gatherer culture you're never

37:38.824 --> 37:42.354
going to have enough people to
resist the Europeans.

37:42.349 --> 37:45.419
If you want to resist the
Europeans and maintain some of

37:45.423 --> 37:48.223
your land you have to increase
your population,

37:48.219 --> 37:52.779
and the only way to do that is
you've got to go to agriculture.

37:52.780 --> 37:56.690
The men refused to do that and
they--one quote one of the

37:56.688 --> 37:59.618
Iroquois, "Farming is
women's work.

37:59.619 --> 38:05.399
Man was not made to go to work
in the earth like a hedge hog,

38:05.402 --> 38:08.972
but to go to war and
hunting."

38:08.969 --> 38:13.809
Given that women are doing the
work in many cultures,

38:13.809 --> 38:17.899
they are very valuable,
and so bride price comes from

38:17.902 --> 38:21.182
this idea that--
in some sense you're buying a

38:21.181 --> 38:24.841
woman and she is going to work
for you and there is a very

38:24.842 --> 38:28.632
rough generalization that in
cultures where the women do the

38:28.632 --> 38:30.892
work,
and the farming work

38:30.891 --> 38:34.331
especially, the man--
the bride price will go from

38:34.327 --> 38:36.237
the man to the woman's family.

38:36.239 --> 38:39.779
In other places like India,
many places in India where the

38:39.780 --> 38:43.510
women do not do the work but are
sequestered and kept at home

38:43.505 --> 38:48.265
maybe covered up or something,
but only do internal household

38:48.273 --> 38:50.353
work, then it reverses.

38:50.349 --> 38:54.869
Then the man is taking care of
the woman and the woman's family

38:54.869 --> 38:59.099
must pay the man or the man's
family, a dowry situation.

38:59.099 --> 39:03.309
The issue of dowry and bride
price is extremely complicated

39:03.311 --> 39:07.521
and cultures handle it very
differently, but that's sort of

39:07.523 --> 39:09.633
the rough generalization.

39:09.630 --> 39:14.110
Polygyny results from this;
since land is traditionally not

39:14.112 --> 39:18.422
limiting but the number--you
need women to work the land.

39:18.420 --> 39:22.230
Men of course want as many
wives as possible,

39:22.226 --> 39:26.116
possibly also for sexual
reasons of course.

39:26.119 --> 39:30.489
Again, comparing North Africa
with Sub-Saharan Africa,

39:30.494 --> 39:35.454
in North Africa and the Middle
East about 1% to 7% of men are

39:35.449 --> 39:36.769
polygamists.

39:36.768 --> 39:40.738
It happens, it's condoned,
but it's kind of a rare thing

39:40.739 --> 39:42.759
in the Mediterranean zone.

39:42.760 --> 39:47.190
Even in the nineteenth century,
Mormons, again desert people in

39:47.193 --> 39:50.553
the United States,
less than 10% of the men were

39:50.554 --> 39:51.704
polygamists.

39:51.699 --> 39:54.519
The maximum of course is 50%,
polygamy can never go beyond

39:54.523 --> 39:57.103
50% of the men because if one
man have two wives,

39:57.099 --> 40:00.929
then another man has no wives,
so 50% of the--

40:00.929 --> 40:04.979
maximum 50%--if they're limited
to two wives and maximum 50% of

40:04.983 --> 40:06.883
the men can be polygamists.

40:06.880 --> 40:09.360
And if some are allowed more
than two wives,

40:09.358 --> 40:12.698
or can manage to get more than
two wives, then that maximum

40:12.702 --> 40:13.512
goes down.

40:13.510 --> 40:18.110
In Sub-Saharan Africa,
and this is 1989 data,

40:18.108 --> 40:23.858
in different places 12% to 38%
of the African men are in

40:23.856 --> 40:26.466
polygamous marriages.

40:26.469 --> 40:30.219
If they're limited to two and
50% is a max,

40:30.219 --> 40:34.179
those places where polygamy is
38% of the men,

40:34.179 --> 40:38.439
means that most of the women
are in polygamists

40:38.438 --> 40:39.918
relationships.

40:39.920 --> 40:45.150
Again, as we saw in New Guinea,
now a widow is very valuable,

40:45.150 --> 40:47.290
again the women are doing the
work for you,

40:47.289 --> 40:49.889
and so in Senegal,
for instance,

40:49.891 --> 40:54.171
95% of the women who are
widowed remarry within five

40:54.172 --> 40:59.042
years and 75% of these widows
are married polygamously to a

40:59.039 --> 41:01.809
man that already has wives.

41:01.809 --> 41:06.189
Compare that to an equally
poverty stricken culture like

41:06.190 --> 41:10.810
Bangladesh this almost never
happens, that widows don't get

41:10.809 --> 41:13.039
remarried in Bangladesh.

41:13.039 --> 41:18.419
Polygamy, contrary to the way
we often perceive it as an abuse

41:18.420 --> 41:21.390
of women,
it is not usually considered an

41:21.387 --> 41:24.137
abuse there,
and women will often choose a

41:24.135 --> 41:26.925
polygamous marriage over a
monogamous one.

41:26.929 --> 41:30.219
Because what they want is a man
with resources,

41:30.222 --> 41:34.162
and such a man will probably
already have some wives.

41:34.159 --> 41:39.079
The other wives act as a safety
net and a support group,

41:39.079 --> 41:42.199
so if the woman gets sick,
or her farming doesn't go well

41:42.204 --> 41:44.984
that year,
or for whatever reason she can

41:44.976 --> 41:49.136
have a group of other women who
will help her in a mutual kind

41:49.141 --> 41:50.371
of aid society.

41:50.369 --> 41:52.769
When a woman gets sick,
and again sickness in

41:52.773 --> 41:55.873
pre-medical societies,
their sick a much greater

41:55.869 --> 41:58.289
fraction of the time then we
are,

41:58.289 --> 41:59.789
and it's a big part of their
lives and they have to prepare

41:59.786 --> 42:00.016
for it.

42:00.018 --> 42:03.508
They have children to take care
of and yet they're sick,

42:03.514 --> 42:05.424
the other women can come in.

42:05.420 --> 42:10.280
Also if they're circumcised and
not--in some of the severe ways

42:10.275 --> 42:14.815
and not say enjoying sexuality;
the burden sometimes in many of

42:14.820 --> 42:17.670
these cultures the idea of
female pleasure,

42:17.670 --> 42:20.460
in some case it's known,
in some cases it's not known,

42:20.460 --> 42:23.700
and it may be very painful if
she's had a circumcision

42:23.695 --> 42:26.115
operation,
so the burden--so sexuality can

42:26.119 --> 42:28.119
be considered a burden on the
women,

42:28.119 --> 42:32.179
but if there's many wives that
burden is spread around.

42:32.179 --> 42:40.549
In many ways polygamy is an
advantageous situation for a

42:40.552 --> 42:43.142
woman to be in.

42:43.139 --> 42:47.489
One anecdote here:
in Kenya a white French woman

42:47.489 --> 42:52.489
anthropologist married an
illiterate Maasai warrior.

42:52.489 --> 42:55.169
She said, and she wrote a
biography,

42:55.170 --> 42:58.350
she said that despite their
cultural differences she and her

42:58.349 --> 43:01.459
Maasai husband,
as well as his other wives,

43:01.461 --> 43:03.051
got along famously.

43:03.050 --> 43:06.850
She wrote this memoir and it
was originally entitled,

43:06.853 --> 43:09.563
The Six Wives of My
Husband.

43:09.559 --> 43:13.199
In a later edition it was
amended to The Nine Wives of

43:13.202 --> 43:14.312
My Husband.

43:14.309 --> 43:19.519
In between he took three more
wives.

43:19.518 --> 43:24.498
I think you get the idea of
what goes on in a society where

43:24.501 --> 43:28.281
land is not limiting,
people are limiting.

43:28.280 --> 43:30.910
Now to contrast this whole
system to that--in the temperate

43:30.907 --> 43:33.887
zones;
agriculture is much more

43:33.889 --> 43:37.709
productive in the temperate
zones.

43:37.710 --> 43:42.020
The key switch is where a
single man can,

43:42.018 --> 43:44.898
by his agricultural efforts,
or a woman depending,

43:44.900 --> 43:48.580
can produce more food then he
and his--

43:48.579 --> 43:51.509
whatever his family unit is,
can consume so that there's an

43:51.507 --> 43:52.667
agricultural surplus.

43:52.670 --> 43:57.360
In hunter/gatherer societies
there's basically no surplus and

43:57.355 --> 44:01.095
a lot of the early traditional
African societies,

44:01.103 --> 44:03.683
there's basically no surplus.

44:03.679 --> 44:05.579
With this surplus,
of course, they have more

44:05.581 --> 44:07.351
children, the children are kept
alive;

44:07.349 --> 44:11.209
there's enough food for the
children, and the population

44:11.210 --> 44:14.370
starts growing,
and eventually you fill up the

44:14.367 --> 44:14.997
land.

44:15.000 --> 44:18.850
In this Lesotho story that
I'm--this history-- there's

44:18.847 --> 44:22.457
several books on the history,
the Bantu people,

44:22.460 --> 44:26.060
who again, I mentioned this,
started in West Africa,

44:26.059 --> 44:29.219
move east to just under the
Sahel and then come down the

44:29.215 --> 44:33.255
east coast of Africa,
and at the period in the 1700s

44:33.257 --> 44:38.377
they're sort of moving into
southern Africa where conditions

44:38.384 --> 44:40.214
are pretty decent.

44:40.210 --> 44:42.330
Who's there? The Bushmen.

44:42.329 --> 44:46.199
And they are kind of pushing
the Bushmen out of this part of

44:46.204 --> 44:47.654
Africa in the 1700s.

44:47.650 --> 44:49.010
The land is,
as they see it,

44:49.012 --> 44:51.032
is open because the Bushmen are
very,

44:51.030 --> 44:54.490
very sparse,
they're not a threat of any

44:54.485 --> 44:59.975
sort and mostly the Bantus seem
to take the Bushmen's wives.

44:59.980 --> 45:02.580
They don't seem to bother to
kill the Bushmen,

45:02.581 --> 45:03.971
just take their wives.

45:03.969 --> 45:09.479
Later on, by the 1800s,
the land starts to get filled

45:09.480 --> 45:14.780
up and then not only do the
Basotho of Lesotho,

45:14.780 --> 45:16.280
the people call themselves
Basotho,

45:16.280 --> 45:19.540
start having conflicts among
themselves but the neighboring

45:19.538 --> 45:22.138
groups,
another Bantu group the Zulu--a

45:22.144 --> 45:25.844
big group generally called Zulu
start getting politic--

45:25.840 --> 45:27.710
they start getting politically
organized,

45:27.710 --> 45:32.500
they try to get land and you
have tremendous wars in Zululand

45:32.496 --> 45:36.876
which also slops over into the
Basutoland and tremendous

45:36.882 --> 45:40.052
destruction,
tremendous dislocation.

45:40.050 --> 45:44.160
Again, eventually the land
fills up when you have the kind

45:44.164 --> 45:46.984
of decent agriculture that you
have--

45:46.980 --> 45:50.710
you can have in the Lesotho,
which was again temperate zone

45:50.706 --> 45:54.686
and that south enough in Africa
to be below the desert zone.

45:54.690 --> 45:58.580
The land fills up and all kinds
of things change.

45:58.579 --> 46:02.989
People come into conflict,
and because individuals can

46:02.987 --> 46:07.807
produce more children than are
needed to work the land,

46:07.809 --> 46:11.139
each individual can produce
more food than is required,

46:11.139 --> 46:16.509
the excess children must go off
and become basically landless

46:16.514 --> 46:21.984
peasants looking for scarce work
or go into some villages,

46:21.980 --> 46:25.560
which eventually become cities,
and become landless laborers,

46:25.559 --> 46:27.609
and the urban poor.

46:27.610 --> 46:31.140
Meanwhile, since there is this
excess,

46:31.139 --> 46:35.509
now it becomes worthwhile for
some people to get control of

46:35.514 --> 46:37.574
others,
because that surplus,

46:37.568 --> 46:41.338
in a situation where each man
just produces enough for himself

46:41.342 --> 46:45.252
and his wife and children,
if it's the man doing the work,

46:45.253 --> 46:48.703
then there's no sense capturing
him and enslaving him

46:48.699 --> 46:50.759
politically--
controlling him politically

46:50.759 --> 46:52.609
because he doesn't have any
surplus to give you,

46:52.610 --> 46:54.230
for you to take.

46:54.230 --> 46:57.560
Once agriculture is productive
enough so that he has surplus

46:57.559 --> 47:00.889
then he has something worth
taking and you start getting the

47:00.889 --> 47:02.929
chief--
the chief's want to become

47:02.927 --> 47:05.377
kings and they want to take over
your land,

47:05.380 --> 47:07.530
and they want to control you,
and they want to get your

47:07.530 --> 47:07.930
surplus.

47:07.929 --> 47:10.539
Actually civilization starts
that way because with the

47:10.543 --> 47:12.373
surplus they buy luxury
ornaments,

47:12.369 --> 47:14.509
and they have craftsmen,
and they have trade,

47:14.510 --> 47:17.890
and they have scholars,
and they have priests and all

47:17.885 --> 47:21.835
this kind of stuff because not
every man is needed to farm the

47:21.844 --> 47:22.434
land.

47:22.429 --> 47:25.409
You both have,
as a result of an increasing

47:25.409 --> 47:29.649
population density,
the rise of civilization and

47:29.648 --> 47:35.768
the rise of a lot of the horrors
of civilization in these massive

47:35.771 --> 47:38.451
wars and massive poverty.

47:38.449 --> 47:43.239
This understanding of the
dangers of overpopulation have

47:43.239 --> 47:48.559
been perceived for a long time,
surprisingly early in history,

47:48.556 --> 47:53.306
when local regions got filled,
but even surrounding them there

47:53.311 --> 47:55.481
could be lots of empty space.

47:55.480 --> 47:58.840
Here's a Greek epic from around
700 B.C.

47:58.840 --> 48:02.700
"There was a time when the
countless tribes of man

48:02.695 --> 48:05.405
oppressed the surface of the
earth,

48:05.409 --> 48:08.149
of the deep bosomed
earth," deep bosom meaning

48:08.148 --> 48:09.688
deep soil,
deep soil earth,

48:09.686 --> 48:12.426
"and Zeus saw it and he
had pity on the earth,

48:12.429 --> 48:16.139
and in his wise heart resolved
to relieve the all-nurturing

48:16.137 --> 48:19.647
earth of men by causing the
great struggle of the Trojan

48:19.653 --> 48:22.133
War,
that the load of death might

48:22.128 --> 48:23.688
empty the world."

48:23.690 --> 48:27.530
Again, this is his explanation
for the--

48:27.530 --> 48:31.470
whoever wrote this
epic--explanation for the Trojan

48:31.467 --> 48:33.857
War,
that it was a Malthusian thing,

48:33.855 --> 48:37.225
that the earth got too crowded,
people couldn't support

48:37.233 --> 48:40.393
themselves anymore and they had
to be cleaned off.

48:40.389 --> 48:44.189
About 900 years later,
Tertullian, a Roman theologian

48:44.186 --> 48:49.876
echoes this;
200 A.D.

48:49.880 --> 48:52.640
"The earth is currently
more cultivated and developed

48:52.635 --> 48:53.695
than at early times.

48:53.699 --> 48:57.009
Now all places are accessible,
all are full of activity;

48:57.010 --> 49:00.100
everywhere there is a dwelling,
everywhere a multitude,

49:00.101 --> 49:03.081
everywhere a government,
everywhere there is life.

49:03.079 --> 49:04.969
We are burdensome to the world.

49:04.969 --> 49:07.659
The resources are scarcely
adequate to us,

49:07.657 --> 49:11.457
and complaints are everywhere
while already nature does not

49:11.461 --> 49:12.841
sustain us."

49:12.840 --> 49:16.150
Tertullian continues,
"Truly pestilence and

49:16.146 --> 49:18.616
hunger,
and war, and flood must be

49:18.615 --> 49:22.415
considered as a remedy for
nations like a pruning back of

49:22.420 --> 49:26.090
the human race becoming
excessive in numbers."

49:26.090 --> 49:28.640
That's quite lovely.

49:28.639 --> 49:33.469
Of course the Europeans are not
the only ones to worry about

49:33.474 --> 49:34.544
population.

49:34.539 --> 49:38.869
In China, in 500 B.C.,
Han Fei Tzu complained,

49:38.869 --> 49:43.219
"People at present think
that five sons are not too many,

49:43.219 --> 49:46.339
and each son has five sons
also, and before the death of

49:46.338 --> 49:49.568
the grandfather there are
already 25 descendants."

49:49.570 --> 49:51.630
The women aren't counted.

49:51.630 --> 49:53.450
"Therefore,
people are more and wealth is

49:53.454 --> 49:53.744
less.

49:53.739 --> 49:57.079
They work hard and receive
little."

49:57.079 --> 50:06.149
This growing population density
is well understood to be causing

50:06.146 --> 50:07.726
problems.

50:07.730 --> 50:11.640
One of the problems that
happens at population density is

50:11.644 --> 50:14.444
that communicable
diseases--there's many,

50:14.440 --> 50:15.700
many problems.

50:15.699 --> 50:20.039
As the population gets denser,
the wars become larger,

50:20.039 --> 50:23.449
maybe not as a percentage of
the population but you have

50:23.445 --> 50:26.785
these enormous wars with
enormous numbers of deaths.

50:26.789 --> 50:32.459
Another thing is disease starts
spreading, communicable disease

50:32.460 --> 50:38.220
because the population is dense
enough that the disease does not

50:38.222 --> 50:39.322
die out.

50:39.320 --> 50:42.260
Again, this is local even
though at the time of the

50:42.264 --> 50:45.694
Peloponnesian War in Greece,
about 420 B.C.,

50:45.693 --> 50:51.583
it was written about in 420,
a lot of that world was not

50:51.576 --> 50:54.936
crowded,
but Athens--the Athens area was

50:54.938 --> 50:57.768
indeed crowded,
and Athens itself was crowded,

50:57.768 --> 51:01.158
and during the war they had a--
everybody had to get into the

51:01.157 --> 51:04.437
city and the city was blockaded
and the population density in

51:04.440 --> 51:06.850
the city was large enough that a
plague,

51:06.849 --> 51:10.049
some sort of plague,
we don't know what the disease

51:10.050 --> 51:11.140
was, broke out.

51:11.139 --> 51:15.209
This is Thucydides describing
this, "Words indeed fail

51:15.213 --> 51:19.783
when one tries to give a general
picture of this disease."

51:19.780 --> 51:21.920
He's writing The
Peloponnesian War as--how

51:21.920 --> 51:24.240
many of you read The
Peloponnesian War or some

51:24.240 --> 51:25.000
pieces of it?

51:25.000 --> 51:28.960
A few;
it's very interesting.

51:28.960 --> 51:32.250
"Words indeed fail when
one tries to give a general

51:32.246 --> 51:35.386
picture of this disease,
and as for the sufferings of

51:35.385 --> 51:38.085
individuals,
they seemed almost beyond the

51:38.090 --> 51:40.500
capacity of human nature to
endure.

51:40.500 --> 51:44.440
People were dying like sheep,
they died like flies,

51:44.440 --> 51:47.700
the bodies of the dying were
heaped one on top of the other,

51:47.699 --> 51:51.369
and half dead creatures could
be seen staggering about in the

51:51.367 --> 51:53.327
streets,
or flocking around the

51:53.331 --> 51:55.391
fountains in the desire for
water.

51:55.389 --> 51:59.289
The temples in which they took
up their quarters were full of

51:59.291 --> 52:03.131
the dead bodies of people who
had died inside them."

52:03.130 --> 52:07.640
He goes on to describe the
result of this plague which is

52:07.641 --> 52:11.351
the people going through
emotional despair,

52:11.349 --> 52:18.859
civil society just collapses,
and all kinds of lawlessness

52:18.864 --> 52:20.584
breaks out.

52:20.579 --> 52:24.259
In later Europe,
Europe underwent huge

52:24.257 --> 52:27.137
vicissitudes of population.

52:27.139 --> 52:29.539
In the classic ages,
up through Rome,

52:29.539 --> 52:33.009
through the whole Roman Empire,
the population of the

52:33.005 --> 52:36.135
Mediterranean world was clearly
increasing;

52:36.139 --> 52:39.659
whatever data we have always
points to that.

52:39.659 --> 52:44.889
Then starting with the Dark
Ages, maybe as early as 300 or

52:44.887 --> 52:47.127
400,
Europe gets invaded by all

52:47.132 --> 52:49.412
kinds of "barbarian
hordes,"

52:49.414 --> 52:51.824
as they are perceived by the
Romans.

52:51.820 --> 52:55.460
First, it's the Germanic
tribes, then it's the Huns,

52:55.461 --> 52:58.891
then it's the Saracens,
then it's the Vikings.

52:58.889 --> 53:02.349
By the year 1000,
European population is

53:02.347 --> 53:05.957
extremely cut down;
European civilization is cut

53:05.958 --> 53:09.518
down, and we don't really have
good ideas of why all these

53:09.518 --> 53:10.828
invasions stopped.

53:10.829 --> 53:13.649
One history that I particularly
like says the reason they

53:13.648 --> 53:16.518
stopped, there was nothing left
worth taking in Europe.

53:16.518 --> 53:23.608
About 1000 the invasions
stopped and then civilization

53:23.614 --> 53:28.534
started recovering,
and it only took about 200

53:28.528 --> 53:32.238
years for Europe to basically
repopulate itself.

53:32.239 --> 53:35.259
When you have land,
when you have space,

53:35.255 --> 53:39.735
people then have a lot of
children, and keep them alive.

53:39.739 --> 53:42.209
In these good years,
it was good climate at that

53:42.206 --> 53:45.296
time also,
life expectancies in the 1200s

53:45.302 --> 53:48.122
were between 35 and 40 years
old,

53:48.119 --> 53:53.129
which is very good for this
very early era.

53:53.130 --> 53:55.980
Then around 1250 the population
stopped increasing,

53:55.976 --> 53:59.446
and for another 100 years or
so, it was more or less level.

53:59.449 --> 54:03.219
When you find a level
population that means there's

54:03.224 --> 54:07.004
something limiting,
some block, and they can't grow

54:06.998 --> 54:08.658
beyond this block.

54:08.659 --> 54:15.079
Historians attribute it to the
whole sort of a state of culture

54:15.081 --> 54:19.951
there, so the land was not owned
by peasants.

54:19.949 --> 54:23.169
So the peasants--if you your
own land you'll have a lot of

54:23.172 --> 54:26.172
interest in farming it maximally
and improving it,

54:26.170 --> 54:28.730
and doing stuff and when
someone else owns the land,

54:28.730 --> 54:31.050
you don't have much interest in
that and the worse the

54:31.054 --> 54:33.684
conditions you're under,
the less interest you have in

54:33.679 --> 54:36.509
improving the land for the
landowner because he's going to

54:36.510 --> 54:39.640
take as much as he can away from
you and leave you just the bare

54:39.639 --> 54:41.279
amount that you can live on.

54:41.280 --> 54:45.630
At this time the Catholic
Church was by far the biggest

54:45.634 --> 54:49.514
landowner in Europe,
and they owned 30% to 50% of

54:49.505 --> 54:52.645
all the productive lands in
Europe.

54:52.650 --> 54:55.820
The peasants on the land were
serfs and lived in this extreme

54:55.824 --> 54:58.844
poverty, and they were not
allowed to leave the estate;

54:58.840 --> 55:02.830
they were stuck to living in
that kind of condition.

55:02.829 --> 55:07.339
The ones that--well the church
itself got very rich.

55:07.340 --> 55:09.850
This is a period of the
tremendous dominance of the

55:09.847 --> 55:10.297
church.

55:10.300 --> 55:18.660
The income from church lands,
going to church nobility and to

55:18.664 --> 55:21.904
Rome,
was ten times larger and all

55:21.900 --> 55:25.280
the church lands--
you had all the crown lands of

55:25.284 --> 55:26.714
the crowns in Europe.

55:26.710 --> 55:31.030
The church got ten times as
much income from their lands as

55:31.028 --> 55:33.858
did the so-called civil
authorities.

55:33.860 --> 55:36.750
The civil authorities
controlled what was left of the

55:36.746 --> 55:38.736
land,
the kings and so forth,

55:38.739 --> 55:42.849
and it turns out that the serfs
on the civil land had somewhat

55:42.847 --> 55:45.517
better conditions,
somewhat more rights than on

55:45.516 --> 55:46.106
church lands.

55:46.110 --> 55:49.420
On church lands they were
really the lowest of the low,

55:49.418 --> 55:52.728
but on civil lands they had
somewhat better situations,

55:52.728 --> 55:55.178
but they were still deep in
poverty.

55:55.179 --> 55:57.739
Because of this serfs just
continued,

55:57.739 --> 56:00.359
they were totally uneducated
and totally illiterate,

56:00.360 --> 56:04.150
and so they continued to farm
the small plots just as they had

56:04.152 --> 56:07.792
done for centuries,
and so the productivity of the

56:07.788 --> 56:12.398
land did not increase and the
population could not increase.

56:12.400 --> 56:16.160
Europe was full so there was no
place that a serf could just get

56:16.164 --> 56:19.874
away and start his own farm with
someone else because that land

56:19.869 --> 56:22.139
was owned already by someone
else.

56:22.139 --> 56:24.109
In the cities which were
beginning a little bit,

56:24.110 --> 56:26.730
the Guilds were trying to keep
members away,

56:26.730 --> 56:28.950
they were closed,
they only took children of the

56:28.954 --> 56:33.064
members of the Guild,
there was no way for someone to

56:33.061 --> 56:36.131
rise up and become a craftsman.

56:36.130 --> 56:43.590
Historians describe this in
about 1300 as a Malthusian

56:43.590 --> 56:48.720
situation that it's--
we'll talk more about Malthus

56:48.717 --> 56:50.947
later,
but a demographic and economic

56:50.947 --> 56:53.907
situation where you just can't
support more people.

56:53.909 --> 56:57.299
The productivity of your system
is just not enough to provide

56:57.298 --> 57:00.628
for any more population then you
have and that if population

57:00.632 --> 57:02.782
rises something is going to
come--

57:02.780 --> 57:07.080
happen to knock it down again.

57:07.079 --> 57:10.169
The thing that happened in
Europe in this era is the

57:10.172 --> 57:10.722
plague.

57:10.719 --> 57:17.779
The plague first hit Europe in
Sicily in 1347,

57:17.780 --> 57:20.810
the previous time it had been
there was six to seven centuries

57:20.811 --> 57:22.671
ago,
in what's called the Justinian

57:22.673 --> 57:25.473
Pandemic,
near the end of the Roman

57:25.472 --> 57:26.192
Empire.

57:26.190 --> 57:30.320
The plague spread throughout
Europe killing millions and

57:30.315 --> 57:31.885
millions of people.

57:31.889 --> 57:35.819
There was wave after wave of
this and there was a wave in

57:35.820 --> 57:39.190
1347, as I said,
the biggest and initial wave.

57:39.190 --> 57:43.150
Then again in 1360,1371,
1381,1388, 1398,

57:43.146 --> 57:48.886
and every few years the plague
would come through again and

57:48.885 --> 57:51.255
kill lots of people.

57:51.260 --> 57:55.880
Numbers are hard to come by,
most estimates say that about

57:55.882 --> 57:59.212
1/3 of Europe was killed by the
plague.

57:59.210 --> 58:04.810
Numbers can range from 1/6 of
Europe to 1/2 of Europe,

58:04.809 --> 58:08.919
but massive,
massive death and brought

58:08.918 --> 58:15.248
Europe back down to below what
you might call its carrying

58:15.250 --> 58:20.360
capacity with the then current
technology.

58:20.360 --> 58:22.950
Plague--they don't know why the
plague came into Europe at

58:22.954 --> 58:25.424
exactly this time,
and it may have been a random

58:25.418 --> 58:28.358
event but the--
one of the more reasonable

58:28.358 --> 58:32.708
ideas is that plague kills,
and plague is endemic in Asia,

58:32.706 --> 58:35.366
but it has to get from Asia to
Europe,

58:35.369 --> 58:38.469
and if someone were traveling
from Asia to Europe they would

58:38.471 --> 58:40.981
be dead--
before this period--they would

58:40.976 --> 58:43.156
be dead long ago from the
plague.

58:43.159 --> 58:47.759
But in the early Middle Ages,
travel--

58:47.760 --> 58:51.390
shipping and all kinds of
travel were getting better and

58:51.389 --> 58:53.629
faster,
and so one of the things the

58:53.626 --> 58:57.226
plague may have been able to get
to Europe because a ship leaving

58:57.231 --> 58:59.881
the Black Sea is where they
caught it from,

58:59.880 --> 59:04.170
could get to Sicily before
everyone who had the plague--

59:04.170 --> 59:07.170
everybody on the ship was dead.

59:07.170 --> 59:09.570
That's one hypothesis.

59:09.570 --> 59:13.820
It took from this nice high
level in 1250 and so forth,

59:13.815 --> 59:17.585
stagnant period,
and then it was knocked down.

59:17.590 --> 59:21.830
It took hundreds of years,
minimum 200 years before the

59:21.833 --> 59:25.453
population of Europe recovered
to its 1300--

59:25.449 --> 59:29.359
1340 levels--and some
historians think it didn't

59:29.364 --> 59:35.334
really recover until about 1715,
so 400 years or something to

59:35.329 --> 59:37.399
recover from this.

59:37.400 --> 59:41.540
The plague continued for
hundreds of years and more than

59:41.536 --> 59:45.596
300 years after the plague
started, it killed more than

59:45.599 --> 59:48.909
70,000 people in London alone;
one city.

59:48.909 --> 59:50.779
This is Daniel Defoe,
The Journal of the Plague

59:50.780 --> 59:53.730
Year;
some of you have probably read

59:53.726 --> 59:57.596
that, really horrible,
so that's 1664 and 1665,

59:57.601 --> 1:00:01.561
more than 300 years after the
plague starts.

1:00:01.559 --> 1:00:04.199
One of the reasons it's
persisted is they--

1:00:04.199 --> 1:00:06.339
the people had absolutely no
idea what was causing the

1:00:06.335 --> 1:00:08.245
plague,
absolutely no idea what to do

1:00:08.246 --> 1:00:10.216
to protect yourself from the
plague,

1:00:10.219 --> 1:00:15.019
no real idea of contagion or
contamination and there was no

1:00:15.021 --> 1:00:16.761
science whatsoever.

1:00:16.760 --> 1:00:18.550
This was before the
enlightenment,

1:00:18.550 --> 1:00:21.430
before rational attitudes
towards all these things.

1:00:21.429 --> 1:00:25.699
What would someone believe back
then not having any sort of real

1:00:25.704 --> 1:00:29.434
understanding of the whole
disease process and infection

1:00:29.434 --> 1:00:30.254
process?

1:00:30.250 --> 1:00:32.350
Pretty obvious,
it's God's punishment.

1:00:32.349 --> 1:00:35.659
Humans are sinful,
we all know that and so God is

1:00:35.664 --> 1:00:36.774
punishing you.

1:00:36.768 --> 1:00:38.748
Well what do you do if you've
been a bad boy?

1:00:38.750 --> 1:00:40.340
You have to get punished.

1:00:40.340 --> 1:00:41.570
Penitence.

1:00:41.570 --> 1:00:44.950
And people would whip
themselves, they're called the

1:00:44.947 --> 1:00:48.987
flagellants and--have any of you
seen The Seventh Seal?

1:00:48.987 --> 1:00:51.467
Ingmar Bergen;
this is a great movie,

1:00:51.465 --> 1:00:54.795
it starts--it's set at this
time in Europe and the opening

1:00:54.795 --> 1:00:58.025
scene is sort of a bleak,
barren European landscape with

1:00:58.032 --> 1:01:01.172
a long line of Pilgrims going
through each one with a whip,

1:01:01.170 --> 1:01:04.730
beating the guy bloody,
the guy in front of him.

1:01:04.730 --> 1:01:08.740
This is atoning for their sins
and this was a way that they

1:01:08.744 --> 1:01:10.964
intended to try to stay alive.

1:01:10.960 --> 1:01:14.710
What was the actual result of
this?

1:01:14.710 --> 1:01:17.970
They're weakening themselves,
they're cutting holes in their

1:01:17.965 --> 1:01:20.885
skin which is a barrier to
penetration--flea bites;

1:01:20.889 --> 1:01:23.789
flea bites carry plagues--so
these were sick,

1:01:23.791 --> 1:01:27.551
desperate people and they were
going from town to town.

1:01:27.550 --> 1:01:29.820
They would pick up plague in
one town,

1:01:29.820 --> 1:01:32.670
carry it to the next,
carry it to the next,

1:01:32.666 --> 1:01:36.186
carry it to the next,
so the very mechanisms by which

1:01:36.190 --> 1:01:40.120
they were trying to keep the
plague away was exactly one of

1:01:40.121 --> 1:01:43.851
the major mechanisms of the
spread of the plague.

1:01:43.849 --> 1:01:48.419
You read the history at the
time, there are all kinds of

1:01:48.420 --> 1:01:52.990
crazy--what we consider crazy
things that they tried.

1:01:52.989 --> 1:01:56.339
So syphilis was introduced to
Europe at about that time from

1:01:56.342 --> 1:01:59.282
the new world,
so we're talking 150 years

1:01:59.284 --> 1:02:03.464
later, and while it was a new
thing on the horizon and a

1:02:03.463 --> 1:02:07.793
number of doctors somehow got
the idea that syphilis would

1:02:07.793 --> 1:02:10.533
protect you against the plague.

1:02:10.530 --> 1:02:14.710
One of the standard cures was
to get infected with syphilis as

1:02:14.708 --> 1:02:17.378
a form of protection from the
plague.

1:02:17.380 --> 1:02:21.770
As far as we can tell,
this was a remedy taken up only

1:02:21.771 --> 1:02:26.011
by rich people;
whether it's true or not I

1:02:26.005 --> 1:02:27.305
don't know.

1:02:27.309 --> 1:02:31.749
The plague, being a very major
demographic event,

1:02:31.750 --> 1:02:34.250
knocking the population of
Europe way down,

1:02:34.250 --> 1:02:38.590
was one of the seminal
landmarks in European

1:02:38.590 --> 1:02:44.240
civilization and marked a
complete change in how European

1:02:44.244 --> 1:02:46.974
civilization developed.

1:02:46.969 --> 1:02:51.149
I described medieval Europe as
having this sort of Malthusian

1:02:51.146 --> 1:02:54.266
kind of land lock,
that things were unchanging and

1:02:54.273 --> 1:02:57.393
couldn't change because no one
was allowed to do change,

1:02:57.389 --> 1:03:00.719
and then all of a sudden you
get the Black Death,

1:03:00.719 --> 1:03:03.389
and then immediately after the
Black Death you get the

1:03:03.385 --> 1:03:04.085
renaissance.

1:03:04.090 --> 1:03:05.430
What happens is a lot of
fluidity,

1:03:05.429 --> 1:03:06.979
people can leave the church
estates,

1:03:06.980 --> 1:03:09.690
can leave their lords' estates,
there's plenty of empty land,

1:03:09.690 --> 1:03:12.460
they go out there,
they can farm themselves,

1:03:12.460 --> 1:03:14.790
the Guilds don't have members,
they can join Guilds,

1:03:14.789 --> 1:03:17.749
they can do technology,
they can move around,

1:03:17.750 --> 1:03:21.260
all kinds of things turn up.

1:03:21.260 --> 1:03:25.070
The first and most virulent
wave of the plague lasted from

1:03:25.074 --> 1:03:28.094
1340s to 1400,
and the next generation was the

1:03:28.085 --> 1:03:29.955
core of the renaissance.

1:03:29.960 --> 1:03:33.720
So 1420, Brunelleschi designs
the Great Dome over the

1:03:33.721 --> 1:03:37.661
cathedral in Florence,
Ghiberti is creating the Great

1:03:37.661 --> 1:03:41.431
Bronze Doors for the Door of
Florence's Baptistery,

1:03:41.429 --> 1:03:43.899
and Donatello makes the first
David.

1:03:43.900 --> 1:03:46.050
I don't know if you ever--you
know Michelangelo's David,

1:03:46.050 --> 1:03:49.540
but Donatello made a very
delicate one before him which is

1:03:49.541 --> 1:03:52.421
sort of very different but
equally beautiful.

1:03:52.420 --> 1:03:55.800
Da Vinci, Michelangelo all
worked in the 1400s,

1:03:55.800 --> 1:03:57.370
Machiavelli,
the Medicis,

1:03:57.369 --> 1:04:00.839
all of this century and at the
end of the century,

1:04:00.840 --> 1:04:05.150
1492, Columbus discovers
America.

1:04:05.150 --> 1:04:08.240
You have--you go from this
extremely tight,

1:04:08.239 --> 1:04:12.369
locked in medieval thing
lasting hundreds of years where

1:04:12.367 --> 1:04:16.947
basically almost everybody is
miserable unless you were a lord

1:04:16.945 --> 1:04:21.365
or a bishop and then boom you
reduce the population pressure

1:04:21.373 --> 1:04:24.603
and the world explodes in
creativity.

1:04:24.599 --> 1:04:28.079
Now that's--not everybody had
to agree that that was the

1:04:28.077 --> 1:04:31.427
seminal event that caused the
renaissance in some--

1:04:31.429 --> 1:04:35.079
nothing is that simple,
but it clearly was one of the

1:04:35.081 --> 1:04:39.151
major things that one has to
consider in describing why did

1:04:39.154 --> 1:04:41.054
the Renaissance happen.

1:04:41.050 --> 1:04:42.830
There were of course
antecedents to the renaissance

1:04:42.826 --> 1:04:44.426
before that,
and as I've said,

1:04:44.431 --> 1:04:48.341
European civilizations started
recovering in the year 1000 well

1:04:48.335 --> 1:04:49.655
before the plague.

1:04:49.659 --> 1:04:52.639
There's a simplistic
explanation but certainly an

1:04:52.639 --> 1:04:54.999
important part of what was going
on.

1:04:55.000 --> 1:05:01.640


1:05:01.639 --> 1:05:07.409
Now we're almost out of time,
but even after the renaissance,

1:05:07.411 --> 1:05:12.031
and continuing up into
surprisingly modern times,

1:05:12.028 --> 1:05:15.298
people still lived very badly.

1:05:15.300 --> 1:05:17.290
Better than before but still
badly,

1:05:17.289 --> 1:05:20.759
so from the time of the Black
Death until the industrial

1:05:20.762 --> 1:05:23.482
revolution started making things
better,

1:05:23.480 --> 1:05:27.560
we're talking something like
1350 to maybe 1850,

1:05:27.559 --> 1:05:31.109
we can push that back to 1800
if you want.

1:05:31.110 --> 1:05:35.610
We have about 500 years,
again, where the population

1:05:35.606 --> 1:05:40.126
pressure is not great,
civilization is improving--is

1:05:40.130 --> 1:05:43.330
making great advances in terms
of art,

1:05:43.329 --> 1:05:45.589
or culture, exploration of the
world,

1:05:45.590 --> 1:05:50.110
but the common man doesn't
really see much improvement in

1:05:50.105 --> 1:05:51.955
the situation at all.

1:05:51.960 --> 1:05:55.520
The population is still
overwhelmingly made up of

1:05:55.518 --> 1:05:58.908
peasants,
just living on the edge of

1:05:58.907 --> 1:06:01.667
existence,
and this is a description,

1:06:01.670 --> 1:06:05.320
a typical house in Europe in
the late Middle Ages is made of

1:06:05.324 --> 1:06:08.364
wood or various scraps of
vegetable material,

1:06:08.360 --> 1:06:10.590
mixed with mud or clay.

1:06:10.590 --> 1:06:14.050
The roof is of straw or reeds,
the floor is of dirt,

1:06:14.050 --> 1:06:16.970
and there's a pit in the middle
for fire.

1:06:16.969 --> 1:06:21.209
If it is winter the family
huddles cold together around the

1:06:21.206 --> 1:06:24.786
fire in semi-darkness,
with the animals nearby for

1:06:24.786 --> 1:06:27.186
warmth;
one of the reasons for living

1:06:27.193 --> 1:06:30.573
with the animals is for the
warmth that the animals produce.

1:06:30.570 --> 1:06:33.190
They don't understand
ventilation and in ventilation

1:06:33.193 --> 1:06:35.003
you bring in cold air,
you heat it,

1:06:34.998 --> 1:06:37.548
and you let it go out so they
don't want the cold air coming

1:06:37.554 --> 1:06:40.644
in so they close themselves up,
but they need a fire to keep

1:06:40.635 --> 1:06:42.975
from freezing,
so the room is filled with

1:06:42.981 --> 1:06:46.111
smoke with maybe a small hole
for the smoke to go out,

1:06:46.110 --> 1:06:52.220
so they're not breathing fresh
air.

1:06:52.219 --> 1:06:56.099
This is a description of the
late Middle Ages,

1:06:56.099 --> 1:06:59.719
300 years later there's little
progress.

1:06:59.719 --> 1:07:04.229
One of the great French
historians, George Huppert has

1:07:04.230 --> 1:07:09.510
studied a village in France in
the 1600s, and there's a village

1:07:09.507 --> 1:07:11.887
about 500 to 700 people.

1:07:11.889 --> 1:07:16.279
"One-third of the babies
died in their first year,

1:07:16.280 --> 1:07:18.890
another third died before
adulthood,

1:07:18.889 --> 1:07:22.249
thus only one-third survived to
reach their reproductive

1:07:22.253 --> 1:07:23.053
ages."

1:07:23.050 --> 1:07:27.560
Remember I showed you that
graph from Roman times,

1:07:27.556 --> 1:07:32.246
same story, 1500 years and
basically no progress.

1:07:32.250 --> 1:07:35.940
"The little children who
managed to survive were good

1:07:35.938 --> 1:07:38.848
looking but,
if they reached the age of 10

1:07:38.853 --> 1:07:41.333
or 12,
they had already assumed the

1:07:41.326 --> 1:07:44.296
generally unpleasant appearance
of adults.

1:07:44.300 --> 1:07:47.740
The people tended to be
stunted, bent over,

1:07:47.744 --> 1:07:50.374
and of a yellowish complexion.

1:07:50.369 --> 1:07:51.619
They did not look healthy.

1:07:51.619 --> 1:07:53.919
Their bellies were
distended,"

1:07:53.916 --> 1:07:56.616
lack of protein,
"They moved slowly,

1:07:56.619 --> 1:08:00.859
they had poor teeth,
their growth was retarded."

1:08:00.860 --> 1:08:03.130
He has village records from
this era,

1:08:03.130 --> 1:08:07.740
"Of the 350 births only
145 would reach adulthood and

1:08:07.742 --> 1:08:10.802
marry in turn,
but of the 75 female survivors

1:08:10.795 --> 1:08:12.745
marriage was almost
universal,"

1:08:12.751 --> 1:08:15.771
again if a woman managed to
survive she was going to be

1:08:15.768 --> 1:08:17.778
married and start childbearing.

1:08:17.779 --> 1:08:21.119
Since they were unhealthy,
they didn't have good

1:08:21.117 --> 1:08:24.637
nutrition,
the girls did not reach menses

1:08:24.640 --> 1:08:28.500
until about the age of 18,
and finally they started

1:08:28.501 --> 1:08:32.711
menstruating and became fertile,
and so they married late about

1:08:32.713 --> 1:08:35.353
age 23,
they just weren't healthy

1:08:35.354 --> 1:08:38.854
enough to engage in a marriage
before then.

1:08:38.850 --> 1:08:42.970
Childbearing was almost
universal--marriage and

1:08:42.966 --> 1:08:47.526
childbearing was almost
universal and we'll see this

1:08:47.529 --> 1:08:51.149
again in China,
but maternal death severely cut

1:08:51.145 --> 1:08:53.145
short the period of
childbearing.

1:08:53.149 --> 1:08:57.179
Having a child itself was
extremely dangerous and of the

1:08:57.180 --> 1:08:59.200
third--
of the one-third that reached

1:08:59.204 --> 1:09:02.344
marriageable age,
most couples had only one or

1:09:02.336 --> 1:09:06.886
two children before either the
husband or the wife died.

1:09:06.890 --> 1:09:11.360
So again the limitation on the
number of children is poor

1:09:11.360 --> 1:09:13.270
nutrition,
late maturity,

1:09:13.266 --> 1:09:17.596
leading to late marriage,
and then early death and they

1:09:17.597 --> 1:09:20.437
have only one or two children.

1:09:20.439 --> 1:09:23.739
The end result of his
statistics isthat,

1:09:23.738 --> 1:09:27.178
by the time 100 female children
of the preceding generation had

1:09:27.180 --> 1:09:29.680
died or finished their
reproductive years,

1:09:29.680 --> 1:09:32.210
they had produced only 70
daughters.

1:09:32.210 --> 1:09:34.630
The population was not
replacing itself.

1:09:34.630 --> 1:09:37.990
This is one of those situations
where, if no one comes in from

1:09:37.994 --> 1:09:40.814
the outside, that village is
going to go extinct.

1:09:40.810 --> 1:09:44.480
There were other places with
apparently somewhat better

1:09:44.479 --> 1:09:48.419
agriculture that did produce a
surplus of children and they

1:09:48.421 --> 1:09:52.501
wandered around looking for some
home and the village made up

1:09:52.501 --> 1:09:55.561
this deficit by marrying excess
people.

1:09:55.560 --> 1:09:57.820
Maybe the daughter
of--daughters of transient

1:09:57.823 --> 1:10:01.693
artisans or laborers,
and again, as we saw in the

1:10:01.685 --> 1:10:05.375
under populated areas of New
Guinea,

1:10:05.380 --> 1:10:10.860
when a man died leaving a wife,
no time was wasted.

1:10:10.859 --> 1:10:13.419
The widows and widowers
remarried right away.

1:10:13.420 --> 1:10:18.830
If--since land was so scarce
that a lot of the marriages,

1:10:18.832 --> 1:10:24.732
and another reason for the late
marriage, was they had to wait

1:10:24.726 --> 1:10:27.236
until the father died.

1:10:27.238 --> 1:10:30.668
That was important for working
the land that there was so much

1:10:30.668 --> 1:10:32.748
that could support so many
people,

1:10:32.750 --> 1:10:36.320
and you had so much labor that
was required to work that land,

1:10:36.319 --> 1:10:38.459
the father died,
that's one--they die fairly

1:10:38.461 --> 1:10:40.591
young,
when they're still being able

1:10:40.590 --> 1:10:42.240
to work,
so that labor is gone,

1:10:42.238 --> 1:10:45.058
you have to take in a wife to
replace the labor of the dead

1:10:45.055 --> 1:10:47.925
father,
then the children come on and

1:10:47.932 --> 1:10:50.522
the generation keeps repeating.

1:10:50.520 --> 1:10:55.830
This situation in France was
characteristic of France for 400

1:10:55.827 --> 1:11:01.217
years, and during that time the
population just hovered around

1:11:01.222 --> 1:11:02.552
20 million.

1:11:02.550 --> 1:11:08.270
It came out of the Black Death
and it rose to 20 million and

1:11:08.270 --> 1:11:13.990
then they were not able to get
over that for the ballpark of

1:11:13.992 --> 1:11:15.352
400 years.

1:11:15.350 --> 1:11:24.200
In--I think--I'll just tell you
that the population started to

1:11:24.198 --> 1:11:29.418
recover then late in this
period,

1:11:29.420 --> 1:11:32.450
and by 1560 it had really
returned to the 20 million

1:11:32.453 --> 1:11:35.283
before the Black Death;
this is France,

1:11:35.283 --> 1:11:38.603
but then religious fervor
starts up.

1:11:38.600 --> 1:11:41.710
In the wars of the sixteenth
and seventeenth century and you

1:11:41.706 --> 1:11:44.326
know --
the wars between the Catholics

1:11:44.328 --> 1:11:47.938
and the Protestants in Europe,
and previously,

1:11:47.935 --> 1:11:52.845
the Christians had religious
wars always against Islam.

1:11:52.850 --> 1:11:54.450
They were--that was the main
enemy,

1:11:54.448 --> 1:11:57.668
the Turks were very strong and
much more advanced then the

1:11:57.667 --> 1:12:00.377
Europeans and they were
battering at the doors of

1:12:00.377 --> 1:12:00.997
Europe.

1:12:01.000 --> 1:12:04.850
They surrounded Vienna,
and so all of the military

1:12:04.850 --> 1:12:09.330
activity was of religious origin
was against the Turks.

1:12:09.328 --> 1:12:13.068
That threat receded and now you
have the reformation and now you

1:12:13.068 --> 1:12:15.648
have two--
both Christian religious groups

1:12:15.646 --> 1:12:18.596
in Europe and they start going
after each other.

1:12:18.600 --> 1:12:22.610
About a quarter to half of the
German speaking people of

1:12:22.610 --> 1:12:26.990
Central Europe were killed in
this period, it was really most

1:12:26.988 --> 1:12:28.518
severe in Europe.

1:12:28.520 --> 1:12:32.340
In France it was sort of
stamped out that early on in

1:12:32.341 --> 1:12:36.531
this period Protestants were
doing very well in France.

1:12:36.529 --> 1:12:39.629
They had a large fraction of
the population.

1:12:39.630 --> 1:12:41.030
Have you heard of St.

1:12:41.025 --> 1:12:42.285
Bartholomew's Day?

1:12:42.288 --> 1:12:48.138
On that day the--it also had to
do with the royal succession--

1:12:48.140 --> 1:12:51.500
the Catholic forces got
together and just slaughtered

1:12:51.502 --> 1:12:55.322
all the Protestants they could
find and that sort of stopped

1:12:55.319 --> 1:12:57.259
the reformation in France.

1:12:57.260 --> 1:13:00.950
Europe again went through then
130 years of this

1:13:00.945 --> 1:13:05.645
Catholic/Protestant bloodletting
before they finally realized

1:13:05.653 --> 1:13:08.873
that this was not a wise thing
to do.

1:13:08.868 --> 1:13:14.028
We'll continue with what
happens to European civilization

1:13:14.029 --> 1:13:19.559
after these slaughters--the
religious slaughter dies down.

1:13:19.560 --> 1:13:21.370
See you on Tuesday.

1:13:21.369 --> 1:13:25.999