Family History
My hunter-gatherer ancestors lived in tribes. They shared resources and protected each other. Community mattered, descent did not. Women gave birth to children, elders ruled, men hunted, and children listened to stories about the Great Mother of All.
But people developed new tools. New skills were needed; new societies formed. Forests were left to the beasts, humans created fields. Men took wives and established households. Trades developed and so did markets. People built houses and cities. Neighbours were friends, strangers were foes. Children became workforce and women – property. Men were masters; elders enforced propriety. Parentage became important as wealth increased. Religions were born to regulate behaviour, and gods fought wars until one dominated the world.
Once relationships were formed based on attraction and admiration of strength and prowess. But times had changed, and marriage was introduced. Fathers sold daughters to the richest buyers. Wives served their husbands for life until a new tide began. Individual goals started to matter more and more, along tagged individual pleasure. Affairs caused scandals; divorce was sought.
Individual ideas turned into ideologies and idols. Industrial and political revolutions shook the world. Gods receded; industries reigned. Corporations replaced communities. Families shrank to a child or two. Half of them split before the children were raised. Both men and women dreamed to belong – to a company, not a spouse. As marriage rates fell and divorces went up, more and more couples never tied the knot. Childfree life was advertised as loudly as gender equality. What mattered were spiritual aspirations and the career ladder. A new form of relationship was introduced: a partnership.
Partners signed contracts that detailed their obligations for the next five years during which children could be born as luxury experience reserved for the rich. At the end of the term, partnerships would end unless contracts were prolonged. Even long after the termination of such joint enterprises, former partners bore contractual liabilities regarding any joint offsprings they had produced.
Networks of partnerships (both former and present) expanded the notion of relatives. One could have two current partnerships and three or more former. Love meant boundaries and respect regulated by councillors and advisors. Social networks became the new tribes, uniting people across the globe, no matter how remote. Community mattered, descent did not. Partners gave birth to children, equity ruled; both men and women hunted ideas, and children listened to stories told by the World Wide Web.
Do a crossword puzzle based on this article.