The Social Culture of Maogusi
Section 4: The Social Culture of Maogusi. As the Maogusi era belonged to humanity's infancy, social relations were not yet fully developed and social networks were not complex. Maogusi's forms of expression reflect relations among loosely organized tribes rather than blood ties, which in that era were relatively chaotic.
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Section 4: The Social Culture of Maogusi
Since the Maogusi era was still in the infancy of humankind, various social relations had not yet fully developed, and the social network was therefore not very complex. From the forms of expression of Maogusi, it was simply a matter of relations among loosely organized tribes. One cannot even speak of blood relations, because blood relations in the Maogusi era were rather chaotic. The composition of tribes also lacked any fixed inevitability—today one could ally with you, tomorrow with someone else. Everyone banded together, for the sake of survival, temporarily forming a group to jointly obtain food or other things. In that era, the strength of an individual could hardly sustain a normal livelihood.
The social nature of the Maogusi era was primitive society, and the nature of primitive society was primitive communism. The greatest characteristic of primitive communism was absolute egalitarianism. There was no exploitation and no oppression, but there was strife. If primitive communism had no strife, human society would not have developed, nor would it have advanced toward a higher level of society.
So, were there social strata in the Maogusi era? In the past, many places spoke of social classes. Class is a political concept evolved from economic standards. It is a political term invented by the mentor of the proletariat, such as the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Stratum, however, is a sociological concept—a social concept by which sociologists, using cultural perspectives, divide people of different levels in society. It can be said that because the productive forces of primitive society were low and people's thinking capacity still had certain limitations, classes had not yet appeared in primitive society. As for anthropologists saying that in primitive society humankind already had "the germ of politics must be sought in the clan organization of the savage state"—since there was a germ of politics in primitive society, did that mean there were classes? Not necessarily. Because class is a complex political group, the newly sprouted politics of primitive society might not be up to the task of producing classes. Class contradictions arise only when the politics of human society have developed to a certain mature degree. Then, were there strata in primitive society? First, let us look at a passage from an anthropologist: "In the final analysis, if humans could not absolutely control the variety and quantity of food, they could not have multiplied into many densely populated peoples. Therefore, every important new epoch in the course of human progress was probably more or less consistently related to the expansion of the means of subsistence." This passage explains that in the primitive period, in order to survive and develop, humans had to create material wealth in greater quantities. Once there was a certain order of magnitude of material wealth, it would give human reproduction and survival a certain material foundation, and they could occupy a place on the entire earth. With a certain amount of material wealth, human strata also began to sprout. But it is worth noting that the boundaries of these strata were not particularly clear. From the forms of expression of Maogusi, in that era the social network was still relatively simple, and a more developed social ideology had not yet formed. Even if there were strata, it was only a natural division of labor, not an artificial choice.
The characters appearing in Maogusi, great and small, numbered several dozen. Among them it is hard to distinguish who belonged to which stratum, but one can see some vague prototypes of strata. For example, Old Maogusi and Little Maogusi: although on the surface Little Maogusi showed great disrespect to Old Maogusi and could even claim to be Old Maogusi's father, this first of all shows equality of personality. But if we carefully analyze, we can discover that whenever public welfare undertakings needed to be done, it was still Old Maogusi who stepped forward. Although Little Maogusi was extremely disrespectful to him, Old Maogusi paid it no heed; he did not neglect his responsibilities because of this, nor did he wash his hands of everything on this account. On the contrary, whatever he was asked to do, he still did diligently. From this we can see that Old Maogusi was still a representative of another social service type. The Little Maogusis, on the other hand, were a group on another level. They were carefree, innocent and artless; after eating, they would go do things or flirt with the female Maogusi, displaying an expression of boundless joy. For example, in the scene "If You (Seek Land)," it is Old Maogusi and the altar master who go to negotiate for land, while the group of Little Maogusis are merely followers; the initiative still lay in Old Maogusi's hands. In some later performances, Old Maogusi also assumed the role of central figure. For example, in "Shijie (Hunting)," Old Maogusi served as the general commander of the hunt, arranging the division of labor among the Maogusi hunters. Without Old Maogusi's division of labor, the Maogusi hunting team would have been a heap of loose sand, and the hunt would not have succeeded. With the development of society, the content of Maogusi increased somewhat. For example, in the scene "Shezuo (Doctor)," the protagonist is Old Maogusi. He plays a doctor, treating the illnesses of the Maogusi and relieving others' suffering—that is to say, Old Maogusi held the great power of medical care over the people, and his function thus underwent some transformation. With the transformation of his function, his importance can well be imagined. Also, in the scene "Biao (Burning) Fire Swidden," it is again Old Maogusi who leads the Maogusi in the slash-and-burn activity. After all, Old Maogusi was more experienced, so the swidden could be burned more thoroughly, and the subsequent harvest would be somewhat better.