The Big Picture

Cultural evolution and the problems created in the transition from living in the wild to living in more and more developed societies is artfully depicted in the biblical story of Genesis. In the Garden of Eden everything was provided for by God/Nature. Food was there for the taking and Adam and Eve lived in harmony as one with the world around them. They can be seen as representing a band of primitive hunter/gatherers.

When Adam and Eve eat from the Tree of Knowledge they presumably see into the workings of the natural world and figure out, among other things, the connection between the fruit and its seeds. Thus, their perspective of the natural world becomes objectified. This serves to disconnect them from nature. They feel naked in their newfound separateness, their own differences become consciously heightened and they find it necessary to cover themselves. Thus, Eden ends.

Along come Cain and Abel and, instead of God/Nature providing for them, they become the providers and are held accountable as individuals for what they contribute. One is a shepherd and the other a farmer. Abel is successful while Cain is a failure. Abel is held in esteem while Cain is not. Cain feels himself isolated, severed from his clan and through his perceived ostracism Abel is seen as the cause of his suffering, his alienation. Abel becomes his enemy and Cain’s killer instinct, heretofore reserved for the hunt and enemy bands, is allowed to lash out at his own brother. Cain kills Abel.

In a primitive band one did not regard oneself as an individual separate from one’s group. It was all about the group. There were no titles or positions that separated members, one from the other. One’s identity, along with everyone else’s, was as a member of the group. There were no stark differences between any two members. Once they became tillers of the soil and keepers of sheep, however, totally separate identities were created, as there were with Cain and Abel. A chasm was created between the two brothers that only widened by judging them as separate individuals.

Also, when hunter/gatherers became shepherds and farmers they felt that they were more in charge of nature and, thus, they became separated from it. Or to put it another way they became more God-like. After Adam eats the forbidden fruit God says to him, “the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil.” In gaining mastery over nature one enters a new territory, new vistas open up presenting new opportunities, which are good, along with new horrors, which are evil. The opportunity for technological advancements like farming and ranching and the horror of a brother killing a brother, for example. Furthermore, patriarchy came to the fore as tribal people became more self-sufficient. God says to Eve on her exit from Eden, “…he (Adam) shall rule over thee.”

The story of Genesis continues and after a lot of biblical begetting took place there came the Great Flood, which was symbolic of another great change in the development of civilization. The flood was a way of portraying the dramatic transition from settled tribal communities into the next stage of human social evolution. The old way of life, rendered extinct, was wiped out as the future belonged to outstanding individuals, like Noah. Men with vision who could see what others could not. Men who could set the world on a new course and lead the coming generations onto the formation of cities and nation states. For not long after the flood the Bible speaks of kingdoms, cities and nations. The descendants of Noah say, 11 4 “…let us build us a city” and 10 32 states that “…the families of the sons of Noah…by these were the nations divided.” The new era of cities and nations could hardly have been warranted by the small number of people that had been produced by the few survivors after the flood - which, again, points to the symbolic nature of the biblical flood.

It’s also interesting to note that this new era was accompanied by a horrendous act of depravity, as was the transition from Eden. First it was a brother killing his brother and then it was a son defiling his father - Noah got drunk and fell asleep naked in his tent. His son, Ham, went into the tent and when Noah awoke he, “…knew what his younger son had done unto him.” So, every advance of civilization brings new troubles of its own. The Biblical troubles indicate the breaking of the bonds that held people together and that is in keeping with the development of larger and larger societies where dynamics shift and forces come into play that can form a wedge between traditional family and communal ties. Competition between brothers and generation gaps, for example.

Religion provided explanations of things and events that could not be knowledgeably explained. What was to account for human progress? How did we go from living in huts to building great cities and nations? And why all the trouble and strife that accompanied our progress? In ancient times there were no real answers to those questions as well as to other questions whose answers were unfathomable in terms of what we knew about ourselves and the world around us. From the very beginnings of our conscious awareness we felt strange relative to other life forms and we looked for explanations of our existence in other realms that we believed were supernatural. In longing for answers to fundamental questions about our existence admitting ignorance was not an option and, so, we found satisfaction through our creative imaginations. We provided answers to the great existential questions - Where did we come from? Why are we here? and What happens to us when we die? - by inventing Gods and Goddesses that were instrumental in our origins, lives and ultimate fate. In this way we try to convince ourselves that we are not strange, we are special.