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How exactly did class society come to be? (hexbear.net)

submitted 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) by space_comrade@hexbear.net to c/theory@hexbear.net

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I understand the general Marxist theory about why class society arose, there was surplus production and that lead to the institution of private property and the rest follows.

All of that makes sense on a high level but what exactly happened on an individual human level? Conceivably those early civilizations could have elected to go for a more equitable and democratic distribution of the surplus value even if the result would probably not be 100% equitable and would result in some poverty due to material constraints at the time. How do you explain the first appearance of private property and class society on an individual level without delving into some evopsych nonsense about evolutionary instincts or whatever?

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[–] Collatz_problem@hexbear.net 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

This is counting the slave population (it actually was a pretty small fraction in most societies, except those powerful enough to have a strong slave influx from war).

The harvests were shitty. This level of mobilization was balanced by being really short-term, which was one of the weaknesses of non-state societies, because when war was long enough, militias of smaller settlements often just left the main army and went home for agricultural work. So even if they managed to beat back the Roman Army, Rome often won just by maintaining the pressure, until non-state armies (if you can apply the term) started dwindling, then forced the battle on favourable conditions.