• Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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    12 days ago

    You said the, “The inequality was not always exploitive.”

    Inequality only happens from exploitation. Royalty existed on the backs of the working class. Royalty in ancient times wasn’t an exclusively Western feature.

    • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social
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      12 days ago

      Sure, but in, for example, North America monarchism was extremely rare and as far as I know they were only significant in the Mississippian Culture, for a certain value of monarchism.

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippian_culture

      This culture is fascinating precisely because it both collapsed from the strain of the European-brought plagues and because the implicit heirarchy was both rare and yet still incredibly egalitarian compared to any Old World standard. It’s precisely interesting because it seems to represent the very growth of inequality that begins with the creation of a noble class.

      I’m not as familiar with Australia’s tribal systems but my understanding is they also didn’t have monarchism. That’s two continents free or relatively free of the scourge of monarchy.