When was this? How good are the records from this time? Seems like for at least the last 12000 years (biblical era) we were for the most part miserable, diseased, and exploitative

[–] orc_princess@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Look into anthropology and such, obviously that falls squarely before history and written records.

[–] balance8873@lemmy.myserv.one 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

But it's still our best guess at something we think we can prove.

I can vaguely recall several stories of fossilized remains which indicate all sorts of horrible things being performed on humans or related by tool users, which seems to imply in pre-history humans were still shit to each other.

So are there counter-examples?

[–] orc_princess@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 months ago

Yeah, there are. While human groups sometimes fought each other due to competition for scarce resources, within groups we seem to have been very communitarian, taking care of our wounded and elderly even when conditions were harsh.

Look at this example.

We're social animals, we would have never survived extinction if it weren't for traits like empathy and cooperation.