In previous
posts, I described from my point of view, the series of events from creation of
the universe, up to the current Holocene era on Earth, i.e., the last 12,000
years since the ice sheets retreated to their mountain homes. Before I begin to address in future posts topical
matters of current interest, I need to account for the rapid growth of human
culture and technology during the Holocene.
From Neolithic hunter-gatherer to sophisticated urban dweller in the
space of a few thousand years. Biological
evolution of the human organism moves fast, but not that fast. The following is a quick review of when, how
and why civilizations arose and the challenges they present to a species that
was mostly as wild as Tarzan only 12,000 years ago.
Let’s start
with when civilizations arose on Earth, a highly controversial topic. The oldest known large towns or cities date
from about 6,000 years ago. Recently however,
the Indian Navy, using side-scanning radar, located some obvious underwater
ruins in the Gulf of Kutch that could be an early site of the city-state of
Dwarka, home of the legendary Lord Krishna.
Sea levels were 100 feet lower than they are now about 11,000 years
ago.
I believe irrigation
agriculture began in river deltas much earlier than we realize, before the most
recent (Wisconson-Wurm) ice sheets retreated.
Ruins of the associated large towns were obliterated as sea levels rose. Agricultural practices and the culture of town
life survived these displacements and are represented in the earliest known
Mesopotamian cities, dating from about 6,000 years ago. Ancient Sumerian texts suggest their
agriculture technology came from “the east”, perhaps referring to the Indus
river delta.
Homo sapiens
have been roaming the Earth for about 200,000 years, 70,000 of those years outside
of Africa, starting on the Indian subcontinent.
For at least the last 10,000 years or so, substantial numbers of humans
have we been living in built-up environments, in close proximity to thousands
of other humans they don’t know. This
radical shift from living on the open range with your friends and relatives, to
a mild form of confinement with strangers, has had profound effects on human
mental life and behavior; a kind of “snake pit” effect, after the movie by that
name.
Cultural
anthropologists, starting in the Nineteenth Century, have closely studied the remaining
societies on Earth which have not yet been heavily affected by modern
civilization. Although primitive humans
had their own full plate of social ills, especially thievery and blood feuds,
people living in modern towns and cities developed a whole new set of physical
and mental illnesses virtually unknown to primitive people.
If one is well
integrated into a modern, smoothly functioning, high-tech society, one might say
it was a good tradeoff. No more periods
of hunger, fear of attack from enemies and constant suffering from parasites
and pathogens. A pretty fair deal in
exchange for a few minor neuroses, although calling them few and minor may be
exaggerations.
If on the
other hand, one is an economic refugee living in a Third World shantytown; one gets
the worst of both primitive and modern existence: hunger, disease,
parasites, plus all the pressures of living with strangers in an overcrowded,
dangerous and polluted neighborhood.
Either way,
living in a modern, high-tech society has its difficulties. From an evolutionary standpoint, Homo sapiens
is still a wild animal, whose behavior is heavily influenced by instinct. The essence of civilization is our ability to
suppress those instincts, through conditioning and will power, in order to
maintain social order. This is the social
contract Rousseau, Locke and others described.
On the open
range, primitive peoples greeted strangers with suspicion and occasional
violence. On main street, people pass by
strangers, even unaccompanied women, with no more than a second look. In a multitude of ways, people are forced by
circumstances and social pressure to act out behaviors almost unknown to their
Neolithic forbearers and sometimes contrary to our basic instincts. Fortunately, our species is relatively
generalized, resilient and able to subsist on many different kinds of
foodstuffs, in many different environments.
Like the cockroach, crow, rat and dog, we are eminently adaptable -
survivors.
More disruptive
cultural changes are yet to come, no doubt at an accelerated rate, but in the
meantime it’s worthwhile to consider this rapid urbanization when examining causes
and effects of everything from common neuroses and depression, to mass
murderers, child molesters and hate mongers.
Among these aberrant behaviors are compulsive disorders, where sane
people act in ways that damage their health or safety, usually, but not always,
in exchange for a short term dose of pleasure.
Think of the seven deadly sins - smoking, drinking, gambling, shooting
drugs, chasing women, etc.
In future
posts, I’ll examine the causes and mechanics of these compulsive behaviors, but
in the meantime, suffice it to say Homo sapiens has arrived, ready or not. More than half of today’s humans live in the relative
ease of modern civilization, compared to our primitive forbearers. For us collectively, the world is there for
the taking, the future is ours for the making.
Did we get
here by a series of accidents? Perhaps, however,
I subscribe to philosopher GWF Hegel’s proposition - that the potential for
today’s human existence was inherent in the very beginning of creation, and
definitely inherent in the spark of life that began on Earth a billion years
ago. For Hegel, the Idea of a sentient
life-form existed as potential in the beginning and has progressively been realized,
until modern times, when through human minds, the Idea has become aware of
itself.
