Is This Life All There Is?. - Beliefnet
As intelligent social animals I would argue that the basic human evolutionary unit is the tribe. Larger than a relationship clan but small enough that all members have a 'nodding acquaintance or potentially so. The tribe sets the mores, creates the Gods, and establishes the membership rules. And historically, establishes other. Gods allow the tribe to exceed the acquaintance limitation, as all tribal members worship God as the unifying entity. And use the rituals as the unifying principles. As long as communication was controlled by the priesthood, this worked well, although resource conflicts with the others were always an issue.
Gutenberg, laid the groundwork for the disintegration of the tribe, and humans have basically tried to find a substitute since. Nations, Religions, and Ethnic groups have all in one way or another tried to replace the tribe, and it seems we are still working out the solution. It is as the Chinese Edit: proverb curse notes 'Interesting times.
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2 comments:
The historic road fore tribes forked with the introduction of the Emperor-King in which every person was a member of the King's Army or was a Subject. Thr "Feudal System" of Europe actually was a civilizing influence, (albeit, a nasty one.)
Quite true. One of the major changes was that the tribal moral standards were invested in a human that spoke for himself, and was at least theoretically subject to influence by the tribe. Unlike the priest who could always fall back on ex cathedra edicts from God.
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