Saharasia: The 4000 BCE Origins of Child Abuse, Sex-Repression, Warfare and Social Violence, In the Deserts of the Old World

by James DeMeo

Ancient humans were peaceful - modern violence is avoidable. That's the basic message contained in "Saharasia," a controversial "marriage of heresies" over 10 years in the making. It will change forever your way of looking at the world, your home culture, and current events. Saharasia constitutes a revolutionary new discovery on a geographic pattern to global human behavior as deeply embedded within the scientific literature of anthropology, history and archaeology. It covers issues and events which typically are ignored in the "politically correct" academic environment, even though it was produced within that same environment. Saharasia presents the first cross-cultural, anthropological, archaeological and historical survey of human family and social institutions, tracing human violence back in time to specific times and places of first-origin. Saharasia also presents an additional controversy, given the factual identity of the violence-prone Saharasian region to be the homeland of the Islamo-fascist terror brigades. Saharasia has at several times in human history been the region from which massive armies marched out to conquer those moister regions lying at its periphery: into Europe, China, India and sub-Saharan Africa. These would be the early Indo-Aryan, Kurgan and Battle-Axe warriors, the Scythians and Huns, the Mongols, Turks, and Arab-Muslims, all of whom formed gigantic empires encompassing desert Saharasia and parts of its moister borderlands. While the analysis contained in this book starts around 12,000 BC and ends at around 1900 AD, the suggestion is clear, that the modern problem of global terrorism also springs forth from basic Saharasian-warrior roots. If you really want to know why so much of the world is in such a miserable condition, and to fully understand the current "march to war" within Islamic nations, this book will provide answers. One of the largest and most ambitious scientific and systematic, cross-cultural evaluations of human behavior ever undertaken. Originally a doctoral dissertation undertaken by the author at the University of Kansas, now supplemented with new chapters, and with hundreds of maps and illustrations. "Saharasia" is scarsely known to the wider public, given the controversial conclusions which precipitated from its development. But its findings, made as early as 1980, have been validated repeatedly by subsequent scientific discovery, and by world events. The new edition contains all-new Appendix documentation: "Update on Saharasia"reviewing archaeological evidence suggestive of an ancient period of generally peaceful human social conditions, world-wide.

Genres: History

482 pages, Paperback

First published January 28, 1998

Reviews

[Heather Benson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was amazing. Hands down the best, most comprehensive history book ever written. It changed my perspective on almost everything! Read it!

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most foundational books for understanding how modern culture/society got to be the way it is today. It is more foundational than Guns, Germs and Steel, and perhaps a bit more challenging as well. Whereas the work of James Prescott (see: www.violence.de) focused on what I think of as the ontological origins of human violence, and is a world class study in itself, this is a piercing look at the temporal [going into prehistory] and geographical origins of institutionalized human violence. Some previews are available at www.saharasia.org/

The formation of the desert belt of the Old World was the last of four major climate shifts that came in geologically rapid succession. These are: 1.) the initial end of the last ice age; 2.) the onset of the Younger Dryas event; 3.) the end of the Younger Dryas event, which also marked the final end of the last ice age; and 4.) the drying of what is now the desert belt of the Old World. The magnitude of each of these events dwarfs anything on the horizon right now, even if we consider likely worst case scenarios. The key argument, which has held up well to challenges so far, is that the extreme desiccation was so widespread and so persistent that it induced changes in male-female relationships and in child care over a period of generations, creating what we now commonly speak of as patriarchy and the institutionalized violence associated with it.

[Joe]

Comment:

Feminism, Reichean Psychoanalysis, Sex Revolution, and Anthropology. -Oh my!

Although I do not number myself among the Reichean Sex Revolutionaries, I still wanted to see this book for the correlations he draws from existing data. I was most interested in his sources. His major source is the data Atlas of GP Murdock. (I have seen historian Andrey Korotayev exploit this too.) I would like to find the Murdock books at a decent price!
Now, one doesn't have to believe in pre-historical matriarchal societies in order to believe that, at some point, society went from less violence to more violence. Was it all due to the rise of Empire? Or was Empire the consequence of a rise in violence? If the latter, what caused the rise in violence? ...The rise of agriculture and thus population? -Or was it an even earlier climate-change that introduced a new and terrible scarcity to a humanity that had not known it? (As argued here by our author.) Or something else...
Demeo believes that prehistorical climate change, that ends with previously flourishing grasslands becoming deserts, caused this rise in violence. (The Sahara is the most famous example of this. Thus the title: Saharasia) According to our author, patriarchy, and all the violence it brings, originates with the arrival of this unprecedented scarcity caused by global warming, then cooling, then warming again in (relatively) rapid succession.
Now, I would also like to see the graphs, maps and tables, that our author here utilizes, disputed by knowledgeable authorities. (If possible.) Of course, I already know that data can always be interpreted in more than one way. What I would like to know is if our authors data sets are somehow fudged.
Most of us, when we see a book touting Reichian theory, roll our eyes, smirk, and walk away. (I have done that too.) This book does not deserve that. It is a serious work of speculative anthropological prehistory that may or may not be shown to be wrong. (This is why I am so concerned about the handling of the data sets.) This argument does not stand or fall on the work of the later Wilhelm Reich. Although our author does not hide his debt to him. If you enjoy speculative anthropological prehistory, I think this book will be worth your time.

[Greta Gonzales · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such an interesting read! A very thorough documentation of human history and the origins of violence.
It makes me hopeful to know that human beings aren't innately violent, and to envision a future where our world is less armored, and where societies are more loving towards women and children.