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Re:How the Idea of a ‘Normal’ Person Got Invented by ktRolster on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @07:38PM (#11171514)
Because before recently, the world was divided up into "royalty" and "people who mostly didn't matter." Maybe add a caste for soldiers or for farmers or for merchants, depending on how enlightened the society was.
Re:How the Idea of a ‘Normal’ Person Got Invented by clock_tower on Wednesday February 24, 2016 @08:11PM (#11171673)
The article's about statistical averages, and their implications for the modern social sciences, not about historical classes and castes.

Indo-European society probably had three castes: medicine men (responsible for law and justice, good relations with the gods, and magic; "wizard-priests" would also work as a description of their role, but feels too flattering for such an early, primitive society); warriors; and commoners. India split commoners into two classes (artisans etc., and laborers); Europe and Persia grouped skilled and unskilled commoners together. Europe and India both saw intense competition between the two top estates -- roughly speaking, magi and knights -- to determine who would rule society; in Persia, the magi more or less won without a fight (and sacralized the knights), thanks to Zoroaster.

In short, it wasn't nearly as simple as royal versus non-royal, at least not in the Indo-European world -- and the high-ranking estates had obligations as well as privileges.