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sophiaserpentia1. The first part of this thesis suggests that there was a shift in human awareness that began to show itself roughly 3000-2600 years ago. (Though I recently invoked the bicameral mind theory of Julian Jaynes, this thesis does not depend on that argument, though it draws somewhat from the concept and offered evidence.) This shift was meme-driven in form, as a response to the shocks of civilized life. The net result of this memetic innovation has been the enhancement of the "individual self." (For other sources on similar proposed shifts in human consciousness, see for example Ken Wilber's Up From Eden and Erich Neumann's The Origins of Consciousness.)
2. The first level of influence on human thought is a biological imperative, which governed human behavior prior to civilization and memetic influence. This perspective emphasizes the survival of the species. We would expect that individuals with notable deviations from the norm in apperance or behavior would be dis-favored, as instinct would tell us that notable differences are a sign that an individual is less likely to contribute to the survival of the species. This could be the origin of prejudice along the lines of race, mental disability, or physical disability -- and by extension of other forms of prejudice that developed later.
Primate society is typically heirarchical. Heirarchy is a sublimation of dominance (which reflects duties as well as access to food and reproduction), abstracted so as to reduce the amount of violence. This reduction in violence is helpful in maintaining the peace among primates, as they are highly social animals.
For an exploration of the many ways in which biological imperatives might shape human culture and behavior, see the works of Desmond Morris.
3. Before the individuation shift began, there is little evidence that humans were much concerned with what we would call the inner life. They may or may not have had the ability or the sophistication to do this; but it is notable that ancient moral codes and myths from before the start of the shift all have an outward emphasis -- describing the place of each person in society and the place of humankind in the cosmos -- but have little, if any, emphasis on the thoughts, temptations, and feelings, that go on inside.
Moral codes, in particular, guide the action of each individual so as to maximize each person's contribution to the national economic output. Little regard is given to the welfare of each individual; the smallest unit to command any concern in Old Testament codes, for example, is the family.
A second factor shaping the ancient moral codes is a tension between instinctive primate behaviors and the peaceful co-existence of hundreds or thousands of people who don't know one another very well. Essentially, civilization required that people be "housebroken." Domesticating naked apes involved the learning of what I will call "rudimemes" -- the groundwork of domestication which does not require sentience or high intelligence, as they can be learned by dogs, horses, oxen, donkeys, etc.
The earliest sets of moral teachings identifiable as such, then, were developed in a mindset just above what we might expect from talking animals. There is an absence of introspective sophistication, but a collected understanding of what actions are good or bad for the good of the family and the nation. There is no thoughtcrime in early moral codes; similarly, motivation is not mentioned as a mitigating factor when deviation is judged and punished.
The biological imperatives have been extended conceptually to a small degree. As the scale of civilization expands, so too we might expect the memetic analogues of the tense compromise between biology and culture to grow. The primate resource-duty heirarchy has been abstracted into social class structure and even into caste systems, particularly once career specialization became practical. The "alpha male" has grown into a figure that is larger than life; he now possesses attributes we would recognize in a tribal ruler, a god, and a national proxy.
4. The shift began when awareness grew that civilized life was unpleasant. This awareness would not have required the notion of individual welfare, simply the observation of wasted life and potential. It could be that civilized life was so dreadful that human survival was at stake, and the survival instinct was triggered. The archaeological record shows that in early agricultural society extreme malnutrition was endemic. There also appears to have been a lot of warfare. Some archaeologists have argued that once agriculture was introduced to a region, it grew so rapidly that it was not possible for nomads or pastoral herders to resist being caught up -- so there was no way to simply "walk away" and abandon civilization as a failed experiment.
Early radicals became non-participants in the system. They "dropped out" and became wandering mendicants, beggars, and hermits. Siddhartha Gotama sought a way out from the cycle of dread he saw around him; Diogenes the Cynic lived in a jar and carried around only what he needed to exist as a beggar. The Jewish prophets were an interesting case in point, separating the divine figure of the Lord from the ruling king and priests and seeing him as a higher authority whose moral code (blueprint for human survival) prohibited the ruling classes from exploiting and abusing orphans and widows.
2. The first level of influence on human thought is a biological imperative, which governed human behavior prior to civilization and memetic influence. This perspective emphasizes the survival of the species. We would expect that individuals with notable deviations from the norm in apperance or behavior would be dis-favored, as instinct would tell us that notable differences are a sign that an individual is less likely to contribute to the survival of the species. This could be the origin of prejudice along the lines of race, mental disability, or physical disability -- and by extension of other forms of prejudice that developed later.
Primate society is typically heirarchical. Heirarchy is a sublimation of dominance (which reflects duties as well as access to food and reproduction), abstracted so as to reduce the amount of violence. This reduction in violence is helpful in maintaining the peace among primates, as they are highly social animals.
For an exploration of the many ways in which biological imperatives might shape human culture and behavior, see the works of Desmond Morris.
3. Before the individuation shift began, there is little evidence that humans were much concerned with what we would call the inner life. They may or may not have had the ability or the sophistication to do this; but it is notable that ancient moral codes and myths from before the start of the shift all have an outward emphasis -- describing the place of each person in society and the place of humankind in the cosmos -- but have little, if any, emphasis on the thoughts, temptations, and feelings, that go on inside.
Moral codes, in particular, guide the action of each individual so as to maximize each person's contribution to the national economic output. Little regard is given to the welfare of each individual; the smallest unit to command any concern in Old Testament codes, for example, is the family.
A second factor shaping the ancient moral codes is a tension between instinctive primate behaviors and the peaceful co-existence of hundreds or thousands of people who don't know one another very well. Essentially, civilization required that people be "housebroken." Domesticating naked apes involved the learning of what I will call "rudimemes" -- the groundwork of domestication which does not require sentience or high intelligence, as they can be learned by dogs, horses, oxen, donkeys, etc.
The earliest sets of moral teachings identifiable as such, then, were developed in a mindset just above what we might expect from talking animals. There is an absence of introspective sophistication, but a collected understanding of what actions are good or bad for the good of the family and the nation. There is no thoughtcrime in early moral codes; similarly, motivation is not mentioned as a mitigating factor when deviation is judged and punished.
The biological imperatives have been extended conceptually to a small degree. As the scale of civilization expands, so too we might expect the memetic analogues of the tense compromise between biology and culture to grow. The primate resource-duty heirarchy has been abstracted into social class structure and even into caste systems, particularly once career specialization became practical. The "alpha male" has grown into a figure that is larger than life; he now possesses attributes we would recognize in a tribal ruler, a god, and a national proxy.
4. The shift began when awareness grew that civilized life was unpleasant. This awareness would not have required the notion of individual welfare, simply the observation of wasted life and potential. It could be that civilized life was so dreadful that human survival was at stake, and the survival instinct was triggered. The archaeological record shows that in early agricultural society extreme malnutrition was endemic. There also appears to have been a lot of warfare. Some archaeologists have argued that once agriculture was introduced to a region, it grew so rapidly that it was not possible for nomads or pastoral herders to resist being caught up -- so there was no way to simply "walk away" and abandon civilization as a failed experiment.
Early radicals became non-participants in the system. They "dropped out" and became wandering mendicants, beggars, and hermits. Siddhartha Gotama sought a way out from the cycle of dread he saw around him; Diogenes the Cynic lived in a jar and carried around only what he needed to exist as a beggar. The Jewish prophets were an interesting case in point, separating the divine figure of the Lord from the ruling king and priests and seeing him as a higher authority whose moral code (blueprint for human survival) prohibited the ruling classes from exploiting and abusing orphans and widows.
