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OPTION 2022: Fred Moten, Brandon Lopez, Gerald Cleaver

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OPTION 2022: Fred Moten, Brandon Lopez, Gerald Cleaver

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OPTION 2022: Fred Moten, Brandon Lopez, Gerald Cleaver

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Johanna Hedva, 'Sick Woman Theory', (2020).

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Johanna Hedva, 'Sick Woman Theory', (2020).

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Jack Halberstam, 'The Queer Art of Failure', (2011).

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Jack Halberstam, 'The Queer Art of Failure', (2011).

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The Queer Art of Failure is about finding alternatives-to conventional understandings of success in a heteronormative, capitalist society; to academic disciplin

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Audio - Pat Deegan, 'Letter of Hope', (2016).

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Audio - Pat Deegan, 'Letter of Hope', (2016).

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Audre Lorde, 'Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power', (1978).

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Audre Lorde, 'Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power', (1978).

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Rancière, J. The Politics of Literature. 

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Rancière, J. The Politics of Literature. 

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James Baldwin, 'Stranger in the Village', (1955). 

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James Baldwin, 'Stranger in the Village', (1955). 

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Jack Halberstam, 'The Wild Beyond: With and For the Undercommons' (2013)

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Jack Halberstam, 'The Wild Beyond: With and For the Undercommons' (2013)

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"Wildcat The Totality" - Fred Moten And Stefano Harney Podcast

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"Wildcat The Totality" - Fred Moten And Stefano Harney Podcast

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"Wildcat The Totality" - Fred Moten And Stefano Harney Revisit The Undercommons In A Time Of Pandemic And Rebellion (Part 1)

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Listen to this episode from Millennials Are Killing Capitalism on Spotify. This is part one of a two-part conversation with Fred Moten and Stefano Harney. Fred Moten is the author of In The Break: The Aesthetics of the Black Radical Tradition, multiple volumes of poetry, and most recently the trilogy consent not to be a single being.

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Audio - James Baldwin, 'Stranger in the Village', (1955). 

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Audio - James Baldwin, 'Stranger in the Village', (1955). 

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Sara Ahmed, 'Arrival' from 'On Being Included', (2012).

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Sara Ahmed, 'Arrival' from 'On Being Included', (2012).

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'Did Margaret Mead Think a Healed Femur Was the Earliest Sign of Civilization?'

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'Did Margaret Mead Think a Healed Femur Was the Earliest Sign of Civilization?'

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According to a commonly shared story, the anthropologist Margaret Mead was supposedly asked by a student what she thought was the earliest sign of a civilized society. There are many variations of the anecdote, but the general details are similar: To the student's surprise, Mead replied that the first sign of civilization is a healed human femur-the long bone that connects the hip to the knee.

Mead proceeded to explain, as the story goes, that wounded animals in the wild would be hunted and eaten before their broken bones could heal. Thus, a healed femur is a sign that a wounded person must have received help from others. Mead is said to have concluded, "Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts."

It is, to be sure, a beautiful, "feel-good" story-one that puts kindness, altruism, and collaboration at the heart of being human. One version, published by Forbes at the start of the pandemic, vaguely references an archaeological site "15,000 years old" where the femur was supposedly found-suggesting that these qualities are deeply embedded in human history. It's no surprise that the anecdote began recirculating online during a time of historic uncertainty and isolation.

However, the story immediately aroused skepticism on my part. And the more I dug into it, the more it seemed to fall apart.

To start, there is no reliable evidence that Mead said what has been attributed to her. Internet sleuths have traced the earliest reference to this anecdote to the 1980 book Fearfully and Wonderfully Made, in which the surgeon Paul Brand writes that he was "reminded of a lecture given by the anthropologist Margaret Mead, who spent much of her life studying primitive cultures."

But when Mead was asked directly in an interview, "When does a culture become a civilization?," her documented response was very different. "Looking at the past," Mead replied, "we have called societies civilizations when they have had great cities, elaborate division of labor, some form of keeping records. These are the things that have made civilization."

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Did Margaret Mead Think a Healed Femur Was the Earliest Sign of Civilization?

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According to a commonly shared story, the anthropologist Margaret Mead was supposedly asked by a student what she thought was the earliest sign of a civilized society. There are many variations of the anecdote, but the general details are similar: To the student's surprise, Mead replied that the first sign of civilization is a healed human femur-the long bone that connects the hip to the knee.