Progress, advancement, evolved, elevated, higher quality, better, morally superior, ethically aware, enhanced.

Words that have no meaning. 

Yet can possess any meaning at all! 

Human beings are not born with or bound to develop such concepts. It is not nature’s way of gifting humans superiority over other species, nor its way of allowing us to become aware of such superiority through the evolutionary process by natural selection. Unnatural concepts to the human experience. Needless for harmonious coexistence. 

For most of our existence on the planet, as we coexisted in small communities, any type of leadership was only established for the benefit of all. A tribe shared the same territory, which dictated diet, lifestyle, and therefore, culture. Any proposition by a leader was accepted by all, for it was common-sensical for the circumstances they found themselves in; there was no need to be made into a rule, a law.

In the community, we are one.

In a shared territory, separation is only possible if a person or a group of people make use of physical or intellectual traits to purposefully benefit more than others to such a degree that they achieve control of the land and its inhabitants. 

From that moment, they have created and are in control of the system that the community will live under. The rules and choices shall always be beneficial to them and usually appear beneficial to others, the majority or most influential individuals; such will be applied through force or manipulation. 

The division between the members of the community and family units is further encouraged if more than one person or group of people attain around the same amount of power over the people.

The words I mentioned, the meaningless concepts, are created and given meaning by whichever system is established in a territory at a point in time, by the ones who benefit the most. In a society where more than one person or group manages to attain such power and control over the majority, different meanings and concepts are attached to such words, so individuals are inclined to be further separated from one another, communities dissipate, and family units are divided.

[Industrial Society and its Future — 114-115, Theodore John Kaczynski]

The Zo’é tribe lives in the Amazon rainforest in northern Brazil, Pará. Its society is based on egalitarianism with no formal leaders. They are highly critical of capitalistic practices. They practice polygamy, where both men and women can have multiple partners.