Nicolas Pol - Student Self Reflection 5

 One of the boldest claims in class is that we need to return to a hunter-gatherer society. The argument for this is rooted in the fact that nature is better appreciated in the hunt. When hunters are in the middle of a chase, they enter a more focused mindset, and in traditional cultures a hunt is regarded as a religious ceremony. The hunter, furthermore, is risking his life to take the life of another being. By having a real hunt, a person is capable of seeing the true stakes of mortality, thus appreciating life itself more. 

The hunter-gatherer society is also supported in class because the model allows for a population decline, since it would be impossible to feed 8 billion people through hunted mammals. The agricultural complex has artificially increased the human species, and will continue to artificially increase the human species past the carrying capacity of Earth. 

Yet, with all of these pros I still cannot personally support the hunter-gatherer society model. 

First, I think that hunter-gatherer societies reinforce toxic gender roles. Even though gender roles seem like a trifle of a topic in comparison to saving the planet from utter destruction, I think that the hunter-gatherer gender roles would stratify men and women towards traditional mentalities. This would not be a good thing for people that express themselves outside (or in-between) gender roles. For example, even though I identify as male, I certainly do not have many, if any, traditional male behavior. That does not make me feminine, but I am not masculine. In a hunter-gatherer society, I would have to force myself to suppress my own personality and play into the macho hunter mentality. 

Second, the hunter-gatherer society model assumes that vegetarianism and veganism is a fruitless waste of time, as all species (plant and mammal) can feel pain. While it is true that plants can feel pain, they also do not suffer. There is no neurological frequency inside a wheat stalk that goes haywire when it gets pulverized into flour. The cells might send distress signals from one to another, but the wheat itself is not suffering. Cells in our body express the same type of pain whenever we get mosquito bites or rub up against something scratchy. It may be a moment of discomfort, but there is no suffering involved.

If we were to do the same thing to chickens as we do to wheat, then there would be mass amounts of suffering. While it is true that chickens do not have the brain capacity for complex emotions, they can still sense suffering when they are in the process of dying. The pain that they feel is coupled with the understanding that they are in the process of losing their mortality, which is a scary thing for any living being that has a brain.

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