Re: The joy of Democracy

On Sat, 19 Oct 2024 21:50:10 -0000 (UTC), Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:

Read Tacitus for example.

 
Fictional/hypothetical society, or real society?

Publius Cornelius Tacitus writing about the Germanic people on 'De origine
et situ Germanorum', aka 'Germania'. He was one of the to describe a
Thing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thing_(assembly)

Eventually kings showed up on the scene, often in conjunction with
Christianity.

More recent examples are many of the indigenous tribe in North America.
Like the early Teutons there might be a war chief when they were going to
war. That was the guy who survived the last war and had shown some gifts
for tactics and strategy. Likewise when they went hunting the best hunter
would lead.

Russell Means had a humorous take on it. The whites would show up and want
to talk to the chief. They would look around and pick the best bullshit
artist, not necessarily someone they paid any attention to.

What were the Māori doing before the white man showed up?