How Did Humans Treat The Strongest?

Somewhere in your family tree, thousands of generations back, there was a man who could out-lift, out-fight, and out-carry every other man in his band. You'd think he ran the show. In a lot of cases, they killed him. As detailed in this deep dive, the story of how humans have actually treated their strongest isn't a tale of consistent worship — it's a five-thousand-year swing between two impulses: tear the strong one down, or squeeze every last drop out of him until his body gives out. What You Will Learn in This Video?: The Reverse Dominance Hierarchy: For most of the 300,000 years humans have existed, anthropologist Christopher Boehm found that hunter-gatherer bands routinely used gossip, mockery, ostracism, and even execution to cut down strong men who got too dominant. The Baruya Assassination: Among the Baruya people of Papua New Guinea, a man who used his strength to steal livestock and force himself on other men's wives was killed by his own people, not a rival tribe. Milo of Croton's Fall: Ancient Greece's six-time Olympic wrestling champion was celebrated with statues and coins in life, then died alone in a forest — legend says with his hands stuck in a tree trunk, finished off by wolves. Gladiators as Livestock: Rome fed and medically cared for its strongest gladiators the exact same way a modern owner cares for a valuable racehorse — extremely well, for exactly as long as it stayed profitable. The Atlantic Slave Trade's Ledgers: Historical slave-market records show enslaved people judged to be physically strong were priced higher and marketed specifically on that strength, worked as literal human horsepower. State Plan 14.25: Starting in 1974, East Germany secretly doped up to ten thousand athletes, some as young as eleven, with anabolic steroids to manufacture Olympic-winning bodies — producing liver damage, heart disease, and infertility in a huge share of them. If this deep dive changed how you view strength and power throughout human history, hit the like button, subscribe for more breakdowns of human history, and leave a comment below! Connect with Us: Subscribe: ‪@Always_Humans‬ #humanhistory #history #ancienthistory #alwayshumans