MR Chapter 3: This Cold and Capricious Place (Social Complexity)
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Marcelo’s Demise (Scene 3)
A. B/c Marcelo Perez was captain of the rugby team and organized the trip to Chile, he assumed the
leadership role of the group after the crash
i. Well-liked and respected by his peers so the group looked to him for guidance
ii. Felt personally responsible for the group being in this situation (he hired the pilots, planned the
trip, etc.) – felt he needed to step up as the leader
B. Deeply religious, guided by his Catholic faith – but when rescuers didn’t come and it seemed as though
the world and God turned their backs on them, Marcelo was devastated
i. Didn’t make sense to him b/c he believed in such an orderly world
ii. Led to increased feelings of guilt – affected his ability to lead  fell into a depression
C. Food was becoming scarce and talks of eating their dead friends increased, Marcelo wondered: why
would God demand that they do such a thing?
i. Others not interested in wondering why – more concerned about ensuring their survival
Modern Minds Need to Know
A. More “civilized” our world becomes, the more shocking we find the unexpected
i. Demand reasons for the slightest deviation from the norm
B. Modern societies encase themselves in layers of material and social infrastructure (Ex: roof to keep out
rain, heating to lessen the cold)
i. Society set up in such a way that we keep danger at a safe distance so we look for an explanation
when chaos occurs – who was at fault? Where did the system fail? (Ex: levees breaking during
Katrina)
C. In our uncivilized past, our ancestors did not focus on these issues = “that’s just the way the world is”
i. Doesn’t mean they didn’t look for explanations but coping and survival took precedence
The Myth of a Rationally Ordered World
A. Marcelo and his fellow Old Christians were products of a Judeo-Christian culture
i. Central to this worldview = idea of a rationally ordered world – meant to be comprehensible to us
in that we have a divinely mandated purpose for existing  seen in the Genesis creation myth
ii. Although Genesis shares certain elements w/ creation myths worldwide, the Genesis story has a
comprehensive theme that’s in sharp contrast w/ the cultural background from which it emerged
B. Genesis creation myth
i. Origins date back to 7th century BCE during the Babylonian exile
ii. Majority of Israelite population exiled to Babylon – struggled to maintain cultural identity
iii. Jewish scribes compiled essentials of the creation story – drew on the various oral and written
traditions of Jewish and non-Jewish scribes
iv. Emphasized how their view of God and the universe differed from their captors
C. Babylonian creation myth (the Enuma Elish)
i. Attempted murder gone wrong
ii. Apsu, the father god, planned to kill the lesser gods but Tiamat, his wife, tricked him and put him
into a deep sleep and killed him
iii. Other gods convinced Tiamat to avenge her husband’s death by killing Marduk, the leader of the
lesser gods – Marduk won, split Tiamat’s body in two – using the parts to create the earth and sky
iv. He then killed Tiamat’s new husband, whose blood dripped on the earth, creating humans
v. Marduk then declared that humans must work for the gods
D. The World According to the Enuma Elish
i. Contains a number of themes distasteful to Jewish scholars: creation as an accidental and flawed
afterthought, dismemberment as a source of creation, gods as violent and vengeful, and humans
and their concerns as trivial
ii. However, these themes are seen in many creation stories around the world
iii. 1st common theme = corrupting activity of a trickster/devil who thwarts the creator’s best
intentions
1. Trickster = serves an imp purpose in creation myths b/c he helps explain the flaws in both
creation and human nature
iv. 2nd common theme = using body parts or fluids as the main material of creation
1. Use of body parts and fluids as creative material serves three purposes:
a. Connects current creation w/ an earlier, more chaotic stage
MR Chapter 3: This Cold and Capricious Place (Social Complexity)
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i. The force behind that chaos is still present, but it has been divided and
controlled so life and nature can exist
b. Creates an intimacy b/w creation and the gods, whose substance permeates
creation itself
i. Creation shares the gods’ nature, including their unpredictable, irrational
tendencies – it can be cajoled (through sacrifice) or angered (by breaking
taboos) – but never fully understood
c. Connects the present world w/ the childlike drive to create
i. Children often take pleasure in creating something separate from
themselves using bodily fluids or excrement
ii. As serious is the world is to us, for the gods it’s merely a plaything that
they sometimes excreted or toyed with
v. Other creation myths confront the gods’ nonchalant attitude toward their creation more directly
1. Life, death, and soul (imp to humans) – typically treated casually by the gods
E. The Genesis Difference
i. Believe creation was the intentional act of a loving God and reflected in his divine law – resulted
in perfect order and reason from chaos
ii. Notion of an orderly world considered fundamental to the emergence of Western science
iii. Creation stories both reflect and inform a culture’s worldview
1. Genesis creation story not alone in positing ex nihilo (out of nothing), order out of chaos,
or creation arising from divine thought
2. No other creation account w/ these elements had such an influence of human history
3. Encourages humans to expect intelligibility from the natural world = can ask questions
and anticipate reasonable answers
iv. Order and understanding was not a common expectation for our ancestors
1. Life much more dangerous and unpredictable – less power to control own destiny
2. Creation myths = mirrored experience
3. Expecting life to make sense = a far more modern preoccupation
v. Survivors of the crash not used to the brutally cold weather – now they’re 11K ft high on a glacier
1. This way of life not familiar to most of us but was to our ancestors
2. Survivors got into diff mindset  thinking, behaving, and organizing like our ancestors
The Cousins Take Over (Scene 4)
A. Surrounded by water, the survivors can’t continue getting water from the snow; it provides temporary
relief but you need much more; your hands, lips, and tongue become frozen
B. Adolfo Strauch (“Fito”) came up with the idea of using the seat covers to make a basin-like shape to hold
snow  put in the sun = water!
C. Gave everyone hope that maybe Fito had more great ideas
i. Eduardo Strauch, one of Marcelo’s closest friends, could not even help Marcelo
ii. Marcelo’s need for rationalization led him to believe that he was to blame for their situation
iii. When they heard the rescue efforts had been abandoned – things got worse for Marcelo
iv. Group became leaderless – didn’t stay this way for long
D. Group looked up to Fito since he proved himself with the water-making system – also created makeshift
snowshoes for the expeditionaries
i. Fito was an unlikely leader – shy by nature, uncomfortable w/ public attention or adoration
ii. Had support from his 2 close friends (also his cousins) – Eduardo and Daniel Fernandez
E. 3 of them were older than most of the others – everyone tended to look up to them
i. Close psychological bond of kinship gave them strength – advantage over all other potential
cliques among the survivors – their family bond gave the group a social center of gravity
ii. When Marcelo died in the avalanche, “cousins” took over just like kin and clans had done so
through human evolutionary history
A Complex Social System
A. Two types of hunter-gatherers:
i. Egalitarian
1. Regularly on the move in search of resources
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2. “Own” only what they carry, which isn’t much: hunting equipment, digging sticks,
materials for building shelter, and their vast knowledge of their desert home
3. Ex: !Kung San of Africa – “property” and “ownership” are irrelevant so there is no
economic stratification, no rich and poor; sharing is mandatory (whoever kills a giraffe
gladly divides it among the group members)
4. Bragging, claiming special privileges – met w/ ridicule, other social humiliation
5. Can be ruthless in enforcing their way of life
6. No headman or chief – all decisions made by consensus – even if certain members have
more influence, they do so modestly
7. Aggressive egalitarianism understandable since resources are scarce and widely dispersed
– no opportunities for accumulating any sort of “property”
8. Can’t eat a whole giraffe by yourself – makes sense to share w/ the group now and they’ll
return the favor
ii. Complex (transegalitarian)
1. Exist where ecological conditions and more sophisticated procurement technologies
allow for more sedentary lifestyles and allow a surplus of resources
2. Ex: Tlingit tribe uses large fishing traps to catch salmon – allows harvesting of more fish
which leads to a surplus = can stay in one place longer and leads to social stratification
3. Social stratification is usually based on certain families in the group who claim a special
connection to the resource-rich territories (Ex: long-dead relative first to make camp there
or died there or led there in a dream)
4. The family’s ancestors are thought to be supernatural guardians of the territory, and the
territory’s continuous fertility and productivity is necessary for the tribe’s success so the
tribal leaders are drawn from this elite clan
5. Successfully exploiting a resource like the running salmon requires teamwork and
extensive labor
a. Traps must be made, monitored, and tended while fish are sliced, smoked, dried,
and stored
b. Tribal elites make the decisions of where to set traps and for how long and the
“commoners” do most of the labor
6. Creating a surplus of resources  use the surplus as a trading commodity w/ neighboring
groups to acquire rare and valued items
7. Socioeconomic stratification also leads to ritual stratification
a. Elite families have private rituals to strengthen and intensify their connection w/
powerful ancestors
b. Ex: among the Chumash of the California coast, private rituals expand into
“secret societies” in which elite families combine religious rituals w/ political
strategizing
8. Complex society contains the beginning of social specialization, in which diff strata have
diff responsibilities – includes ritual specialization as well
a. Ex: Egalitarian societies, such as the !Kung San, have many shamans but among
complex hunter-gatherers, private rituals require special shamans from the elite
class, whose authority is seen as greater than “ordinary” shamans
B. The Evolution of Social Complexity
i. Most likely inherited from common ancestor; social hierarchy is a common trait of all great apes
ii. However, egalitarianism is a universal trait of simple hunter-gatherers
iii. Something must have happened during hominin evolution that disrupted the normal ape social
dominance pattern allowing egalitarianism to take its place
iv. U-shaped curve (p. 70 in Mortal Rituals)
v. At first, hominins lived in fairly strict social hierarchies similar to those of chimps
1. Males challenge one another for dominance  winner gets alpha status
2. Females same hierarchy  both get greater access to resources for offspring
vi. Over the next few million years, this hierarchy steadily undermined  more egalitarian
vii. Factors contributing to this:
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1. Apes = capable of forming coalitions (teaming up against an alpha male)  capacity for
joint cooperative activity already present  able to weaken the dictator
2. Became hairless (3.5-1.2 MYBP) = this combined w/ bipedalism meant mothers had to
carry their young but be put down when mothers foraged  led to obligate cooperative
foraging = hominin mothers had to forage cooperatively w/ other females in order to
look over the infants, guard against predators while gathering enough resources for the
group
3. Stone tool production (2.6 MYP) = allowed access to wider array of resources, leading to
greater amounts of scavenged and hunted game
a. Hunting and scavenging large prey required group cooperation
b. At first, stick-and-stone throwing to chase away competitors from carcass
c. As hominins grew larger and hunting tools became more lethal, scavenging led to
cooperative hunting
d. Strictly enforced egalitarianism (bottom of U) = 400,000 YBP
4. Throwing ability = as we became better, throwing became a formidable means of social
leveling
a. If a bullying alpha male could be taken down at a distance, it would make them
think twice about forcing this on the others
viii. Why did egalitarianism fade? Collapsed suddenly
1. Another example of reemergence of ancient ways
2. Unless strong cultural constraints are in place and actively enforced, humans easily and
naturally “slide back” to an ancestral form of thinking and behaving, which is what
happened 30,000 years ago
C. Elaborate Burials – evidence of complex social system
i. Three different burial sites (Sungir in Russia – 28,000 YBP, Dolni Vestonice in Czech Republic,
and Saint-Germain-la-Riviere in France) containing elaborately adorned bodies w/ fine ivory
beads, necklaces, pendants, and bracelets – ivory spears, carvings, and other artifacts also buried
w/ bodies
ii. Would have taken thousands of labor hours per body to make these pieces
iii. Not the oldest sites (others date back 100,000 YBP) but among the first to include elaborate grave
goods – first evidence of social stratification
1. Among present-day traditional societies, these burials are reserved for elites who are
meant to take their place as powerful ancestors
iv. Many elaborate burial sites along w/ sites containing famous Upper Paleolithic art and artistic
artifacts are located in prominent river valleys where seasonally abundant resources would have
been available
1. Sungir – located along Klyazma River
2. Lascaux – most famous cave containing art – located in France’s Dordogne valley =
rivers imp source for fish but valley served as migration route for grazing animals 
more chances for harvesting food
3. 25,000YBP in Eurasia – first evidence of storage pits for preserving perishables
a. First (indirect) evidence of hunting technologies (traps, snares, weirs) capable of
obtaining surplus quantities of resources
v. 10,000YBP – stratified social systems were thought to have arisen in association w/ the
agricultural revolution
1. Settled agriculture gave humans even greater means of producing surplus resources 
intensified social complexity and stratification
2. Humans “ancestralize” their social world = more in line w/ primate heritage
D. The Mountain Society – complex social system not egalitarian
i. Why? Once they decided to use their dead friends as food, an abundant resource became available
and a stratified society emerged around that resource
ii. Multi-tiered – w/ diff groups having diff rights, responsibilities, and specializations
iii. The Cousins (Fito Strauch, Eduardo Strauch, & Daniel Fernandez)
1. Although Marcelo was a “natural” leader when it came to the rugby team, the “cousins”
were a more natural form of leadership in terms of human evolution
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a. Family units = core of any hunter-gatherer band as well as the social
infrastructure
b. When stressed, these bonds are the toughest and most enduring – not surprising
the crash survivors’ social system stabilized around a kin group
c. Their closeness gave inner strength and psychological protection others lacked
d. Gave the group hope when nothing else could
e. Kinship ties provide an adaptive function (seen throughout human evolutionary
history) – we naturally turn to kin groups for support & guidance
2. Eduardo and Fito were close but had distinct personalities
a. Eduardo = older but smaller, had a more cultured, sophisticated demeanor, he
was calm, thoughtful, and passionate about things (esp architecture)
b. Fito = untraveled, introverted, less decisive, but no less determined or clever than
his cousin or anyone else on the mountain
c. Daniel = oldest of the 3, calm, and mature
3. Exerted an essential centripetal force on the group – kept group from breaking out into
bickering cliques – however, this brought on much responsibility
4. Since it was a near impossible job, the cousins assumed the task of butchering the meat
after the bodies were dug out of the snow and thawed in the sun
a. 2nd group would cut the larger portions into smaller ones
b. Cousins would supervise the rationing of food to all survivors (handful or ½ lb.)
but those who worked harder received more, and expeditionaries received even
more
iv. The Lieutenants (Carlitos Paez, Gustavo Zerbino, & Pedro Algorta)
1. Slightly younger boys who saw the advantage to being closely associated w/ the cousins
2. Stayed close to the cousins, conveyed orders down the chain to rest of the group, did
favors, and ran errands for the “superiors”
3. Paez = wanted to be an expeditionary
a. Due to some skepticism about his mentality, he went with others for a trial run
and almost didn’t come back, but this made him even more determined – made
effort to be more responsible
b. Most imp contribution = could make people laugh and provided comic relief
c. Group’s ritual specialist – lead them nightly in reciting the rosary
4. Gustavo Zerbino = 19 yr old med student – also part of medical crew
a. Close w/ Daniel Fernandez – helped him collect money and documents from
those who died
b. Nicknamed “the detective” = investigated minor offenses committed by others
c. Tough, member of early expedition team but almost went snow-blind – eyes
never fully recovered
d. Pessimist by nature – focused on bad news while Paez was the optimist
5. Pedro Algorta = loner, introverted and shy
a. Most of his close friends were killed or hurt in the crash
b. Suffered from amnesia and didn’t remember why he took the trip w/ them
c. No-nonsense hard worker, who caught Fito’s goodwill and attention
v. The Medical Crew (Roberto Canessa, Gustavo Zerbino & Liliana Methol)
1. Liliana = husband was cousin to one of the rugby players
a. Became mother to the group, also acted as the nurse
b. Killed in the avalanche that struck on Oct 29
vi. Workers and Parasites
1. Marcelo created a cleanup crew = stronger workers were responsible for clearing out the
fuselage so survivors could sleep there and weaker or injured workers tended to watermaking system (youngest boys – lowest tier)
2. Some workers became complacent – spent the day sitting in the snow, smoking,
complaining  became community’s parasites
a. Always fed but got fewer rations; tolerated; brunt of a joke or two
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b. Like our ancestral past, no single individual valuable enough to jeopardize the
group’s functioning
c. Traditional societies often ostracize or verbally abuse freeloaders to bring them
in line – occasionally happened on the Andes
d. Didn’t want to expend to much energy on this so if they could offer a bit of
entertainment, the group would take it and leave them alone
vii. The Expeditionaries (Nando Parrado, Roberto Canessa, Antonio Vizintin, & Numa Turcatti)
1. In order to have a real chance of getting out of the Andes, the group decided to select the
most able (physically and mentally) of the group and strengthen them for this difficult
challenge
2. Separate, warrior caste – received special prayers and special privileges
a. Exempt from work detail, allowed extra rations, given best places to sleep
3. Stood apart from the cousins – counterweight to their authority – balanced each other out
4. Nando Parrado = knocked into a coma and thought to be dead; however, Diego Storm
realized Nando might still be alive and moved him closer to the survivors to keep warm
a. Interestingly, he who had been left for dead, rose again 3 days later to become
the leader of the expeditionaries, and in a real way, their savior
5. Roberto Canessa = “Muscles,” brightest, most difficult & complicated on the mtn
a. 2nd yr med student – assumed the role as the group’s chief medical authority
b. Despite his stubbornness, he was as tough and smart as he acted
6. Tintin = brave and strong but also self-centered and whiny
a. Content to take a backseat to Parrado and Canessa
b. Canessa had some influence over him as they had similar qualities
7. Numa Turcatti = small and muscular, almost as well liked as Parrado
a. Mtn took a toll on him – found very difficult to get over his aversion for eating
human flesh but did it out of duty to his fellow survivors
b. Suffered a minor bruise that became unexpectedly fatal
The Illusion of Security
A. Smiling Through the Horror Show (Scene 5)
i. Mountain society reflected a complex hunter-gatherer society except there’s was not sustainable
ii. Conditions were bad, but they were protected from the cold and weren’t starving
1. They had a routine and everyone pretty much knew their responsibilities
2. After failed attempts to get out the mountains, the fuselage seemed safe compared to the
snow
iii. Once Parrado returned from a trek, he got an outsider’s glimpse of their life on the mountain and
what they’d become accustomed to: humans bones laying around, strips of fat drying in the sun,
and skulls staring at them from bone piles
iv. However, it is common human practice for the living to return to the site of the dead
1. Neanderthals did so as well but there is an imp diff in their manner of return
v. Neanderthal caves (Kebara in Israel and Krapina in Croatia) contain evidence that Neanderthals
lived among remains of dead members of their own species – pushed them aside and went about
their day
1. Humans don’t do this – not then and not now
2. Behavioral difference might stem from a deeper cognitive difference in autonoetic
thinking (ability to project oneself backward or forward in time)
a. Contemplating the “what ifs” of life as well as envisioning the afterlife
b. May be one of the reasons why humans recoil from living among or treating
casually the dead remains of people
c. Neanderthals – not concerned about this but rather surviving the Ice Age
d. AT was a double-edged sword on the mountain
i. Brought revulsion at the closeness they lived among their dead friends
ii. Reminded them of how much worse it could be
vi. Humans – remarkably adaptive species (most adaptive the earth has seen)
1. We can get used to anything if the alternative seems worse
2. Andes survivors had gotten use to (comfortable with) this way of life
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vii. Canessa’s Delay
1. Deep down Canessa didn’t really believe climbing the mountain was possible
2. He had scars from previous expeditions and felt that a trek through the mountains was a
death sentence compared to the “safety” of the Fairchild
3. Parrado and the cousins couldn’t convince Canessa but Turcatti was able to
4. However, once Turcatti died, he knew they had to make this last trek or the mountain
would eventually take them all – Parrado told him that he and Tintin were leaving the
next morning and Canessa finally agreed it was time to go
Questions
1) How does the Genesis creation myth help explain Marcelo’s demise?
2) Explain the difference between egalitarian and complex hunter-gatherers and describe how the crash survivors’ social
system was complex rather than egalitarian.
3) What four factors contributed to a more egalitarian society?
4) What do elaborate burials tell us about social complexity?
5) What is autonoetic thinking and why was it a double-edged sword on the mountain?