Sunday, December 10, 2017

The Birth of Gods in the Neolithic - The Ideas of Jacques Cauvin

THE BIRTH OF GODS IN THE NEOLITHIC

A Response to the Ideas of Jacques Cauvin

Detail: Prometheus creating and giving life to man as the other gods look on. " 'Creation of the Man' by Prometheus, 4th-c.CE Roman sarcophagus. Marble."
Detail: Prometheus creating and giving life to man as the other gods look on.
" 'Creation of the Man' by Prometheus, 4th-c.CE Roman sarcophagus. Marble."
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MANNapoli_6705_creation_of_the_man_sarcophagus.jpg

The French archaeologist Jacques Cauvin believed that the Neolithic Revolution which led to agriculture and cities and civilization, happened not because people needed to survive, but rather because there was a "Revolution of Symbols" which changed how human beings related to nature. He believed that the modern concept of gods and God occurred at this time. In 1994 when he proposed this, it was a radical idea.

When I read about this theory I was intrigued because -- without knowing about his work -- four years ago in 2013, I had written that another revolution of thought had occurred perhaps 50,000 years ago during the Paleolithic old-stone-age caveman era. And I believe it was this revolution that has determined our way of life ever since then.


See my blog: Science Vs. Faith, Religion and Belief


THE FUNDAMENTAL & REVOLUTIONARY IDEA IS THIS:


From the most 'primitive' beliefs to the most modern religions and science, 
in all cultures, and all civilizations across the globe, 
there was/is an underlying uniquely human logic: 


There are forces
in the external reality
outside of human beings
which can be known
and once known can be influenced


This is the central idea that has guided and propelled human culture and civilization ever since. This idea allowed us to create agriculture in the Neolithic era and to send rockets to the moon in the 20th century. This idea was true for shamanistic religions, for polytheism and monotheism and is also true for science today. In fact it is the cornerstone of science.

Like Cauvin, I think this belief came first. So at the beginning of this period of development, humankind needed to believe the spirits were knowable. This faith then led to increased skills and knowledge. All of this was motivated by a basic animal instinct, the instinct for survival. Gaining knowledge and power meant that humans would have a better chance of surviving.


God the Geometer, i.e., the creator of an orderly Universe we can know as human beings.
Left: God the Geometer, i.e., the creator of an orderly Universe we can know as human beings.
"(circa 1220-1230) Science, and particularly geometry and astronomy/astrology, was linked directly to the divine for most medieval scholars. The compass in this 13th century manuscript is a symbol of God's act of Creation. God has created the universe after geometric and harmonic principles, to seek these principles was therefore to seek and worship God." https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:God_the_Geometer.jpg
Right: A painting from William Blake's Europe a Prophecy, Creation of the World.
"God in "The Ancient of Days" is a "nous" figure, a creative principle in the universe that establishes mathematical order and permanence that allows life to keep from becoming nothingness." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe_a_Prophecy


To see my thinking about this in detail 
read the rest of this blog

In 1994 French archaeologist Jacques Cauvin published his masterwork The Birth of the Gods and the Origins of Agriculture. Writing about the transition from Paleolithic to Neolithic, he put forward a radical idea. He claimed that before the Neolithic Revolution could occur and before agriculture could change the life of humans forever, there was a mental and psychological revolution, a "Revolution of the Symbols." He wrote that this thought-revolution had to occur first before the physical revolution of planting and domesticating animals came about, i.e., the Neolithic Revolution which led to cities and civilizations and the world we live in today. 

He argued that this shift in thinking from nomadic hunter-gatherer Paleolithic peoples to agricultural sedentary Neolithic farmers had to do with a fundamental change in religious ideas. This new religion involved a conception of personalized anthropomorphic divinities that treated humans as special creatures, and so gave humans a different sense of themselves and their life on this Earth. Their relationship with these gods or God led to an understanding that humans were unique among the animals which then allowed humans to domesticate animals, to shape their own environment and in a sense to shape their own destiny. Humans identified with these gods and like the gods saw themselves as above nature. Humans believed the gods had given them power over nature so they could begin to shape and control natural forces. For example, if it did not rain, farmers learned to irrigate their crops. 

In the Book of Genesis. Chapter 1, God gives humankind power over the animals:
Woodcut for "Die Bibel in Bildern" by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1860. 
In the Book of Genesis. Chapter 1, God gives humankind power over the animals:
26 Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness, so they may rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move on the earth.”
27 God created humankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them,
male and female he created them.

New English Translation of the Bible

At the same time, this new relationship meant that humans also felt disconnected from the natural world that they had been a part of at the beginning of the Paleolithic era.

When Jacques Cauvin proposed this idea, it was startling. Archaeologists and researchers had all assumed that the Neolithic age began due to economic factors because farming seemed like the best strategy for survival.


One of the 11,000-year-old columns found at Gobekli Tepe in Turkey,  made with stone tools before the Neolithic Revolution.
One of the 11,000-year-old columns found at Gobekli Tepe in Turkey, 
made with stone tools before the Neolithic Revolution.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6bekli_Tepe

Then in the same year that Cauvin's book came out, a major discovery seemed to confirm his ideas. A huge sophisticated pre-Neolithic complex in Turkey, called Gobekli Tepe, was found that had been buried for 11,000 years. After it was initially excavated, the evidence showed that it had been used by hunter-gatherers but contained huge straight, tall, finely finished stone columns and stone carvings of animals. All of this was crafted with stone tools. The quality of the workmanship was superb. Yet the people were not at the Neolithic point of development. The site appeared to be a religious gathering place that was used regularly by hunter-gatherers who did not live there. Klaus Schmidt, who was in charge of the archeological dig, said it was a "cathedral on a hill" and then later added "First came the temple, then the city," thus confirming Jacques Cauvin's principle idea.

When I recently came across these ideas of Jacques Cauvin, I was fascinated, because I had written blogs about the same subject. Many of my ideas were similar to his which I did not know at the time. My ideas are as follows. 

Long before the Neolithic age, I believe there was an even more basic, fundamental shift in our symbols, one that happened early in our development, one that has determined our way of life and our fate ever since. And this change had to occur first before Cauvin's "Revolution of the Symbols" could take hold. In fact, Cauvin's theory of a shift to personalized divinities required the more fundamental shift that I wrote about. How did this happen? Read on.


Adam Naming the Animals by Jan Brueghel the Younger, 17th century, oil on copper.
Adam Naming the Animals by Jan Brueghel the Younger, 17th century, oil on copper.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jan_Breughel_de_Jonge_-_De_geschiedenis_van_Adam_en_Eva.jpg
19 The Lord God formed out of the ground every living animal of the field and every bird of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them, and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 
20 So the man named all the animals, the birds of the air, and the living creatures of the field
The Book of Genesis, Chapter 2, New English Translation of the Bible


In most hunter-gatherer cultures:"There are invariably two temporal orders of existence, with an Early mythical or 'dreamtime' preceding the present. In the former, nature and culture are not yet fully separated. Out of this existence...crystallizes the distinction between humans and animals, even mortality itself, and virtually everything of cultural significance."  Introduction: The Cambridge Encyclopedia of HUNTERS AND GATHERERS


AN EARLIER REVOLUTION OF RELIGIOUS BELIEF

First:
When homo sapiens sapiens evolved (meaning us modern humans) they/we were given a unique part of the brain that dealt with time. No other animal has this.
"This ability to hold on to a piece of information temporarily in order to complete a task is specifically human. [ED: my emphasis] It causes certain regions of the brain to become very active, in particular, the pre-frontal lobe. This region, at the very front of the brain, is highly developed in humans. It is the reason that we have such high, upright foreheads, compared with the receding foreheads of our cousins the apes. Hence it is no surprise that the part of the brain that seems most active during one of the most human of activities [ED: short-term memory] is located precisely in this prefrontal region that is well developed only in human beings."Perhaps the most extreme example of short-term memory is a chess master who can explore several possible solutions mentally before choosing the one that will lead to checkmate."  SHORT-TERM MEMORY': McGill University, Montreal, Canada   http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/d/d_07/d_07_cr/d_07_cr_tra/d_07_cr_tra.html

See my blog: Animal Senses Compared to the Human Sense of Time

I think it is quite possible that the human brain's unique ability to consider future actions in the short term became a model for time itself. This short-term understanding of time could have been developed and expanded through language and symbolism to include time in the long term. So the skill of considering whether to go right or left in the heat of a hunt could, over thousands of years, be extended to considering whether to go to the river or the mountains by the next full moon, for example. 

The next three steps probably happened over and over and went around and around and back and forth. Which came first or which led to which is difficult to determine. I suspect that it was a what-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg type of situation. 

Second: 
Because of our ability to perceive time, we began to see patterns.

I believe the human sense of time -- hundreds of thousands of years before civilization began -- gave us the edge as a species. Because without an ability to recall the past, we would not have the data necessary to discern a pattern. Before we could perceive patterns we had to have had a clear memory and a detailed understanding of what we had seen and experienced so we could connect the dots. Yet the combination of the two: a sophisticated understanding of time combined with a sophisticated perception of patterns, gave us a tremendous advantage.

There is another aspect to perceiving patterns. For example, knowing astronomical patterns gave humans predictive power. Once people saw a certain star(s) appear they learned to predict how the weather and seasons would change. This ability to predict the future gave humans a godlike power that no other animal had.


See my blog: Patterns & Memory


The return of the Pleiades every year was a major event in many cultures as it often marked the beginning of the rainy season and for some was the beginning of the new year
The return of the Pleiades (halfway up on the left) every year was a major event in many cultures as it often marked the beginning of the rainy season and for some was the beginning of the new year. Since there was a distinct seasonal change when it appeared, it was also given godlike powers and treated with reverence in many religions. 
According to Wikipedia, the Pleiades was known to "the Maori, Aboriginal Australians, the Persians, the Chinese, the Japanese, the Maya, the Aztec, and the Sioux and Cherokee." as well as the Greeks. When the Pleiades first appeared in the night sky -- which lasted only a few minutes at the beginning of its annual reappearance -- indigenous tribes often greeted it with wild celebrations. Yet their ability to mark time was sophisticated enough that they knew exactly when to first look for the Pleiades even though it appeared over the horizon very briefly at first. This first sighting of a key star or stars right at dawn for a few minutes is known as the heliacal rising. It required a good deal of skill and this moment was considered sacred by many peoples. 
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NATIVES_HAILING_THE_RE-APPEARANCE_OF_THE_PLEIADES.png

Third: 
Symbolism and the beginnings of religion:

We know from burial evidence that humans were beginning to have religious thoughts as early as 100,000 years ago. Burial rites are often seen by anthropologists as a sign of religious rituals.
"The earliest undisputed human burial dates back 100,000 years. Human skeletal remains stained with red ochre were discovered in the Skhul cave and Qafzeh, Israel."   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleolithic_religion
At some point, perhaps around 50,000 years ago, there was a major shift in the way humans operated. Known as "symbolic culture" or the "human revolution," it referred to:  The symbolic world of shared language and concepts that each one of us carries within us and is a creation of our culture.

"Symbolic culture is a domain of objective facts whose existence depends, paradoxically, on collective belief. [ED: such as money or marriage]
"Long before the late twentieth-century invention of the Internet, evolution allowed humans to flit between two realms, reality on the one hand, virtual reality on the other. Symbolic culture is an environment of virtual entities lacking counterparts in the real world." 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbolic_culture

"Symbolism was not an optional extra – life following the transition became fundamentally organized through symbols.(A summation of the thinking of Christopher Henshilwood and Ian Watts)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Human_Revolution_(human_origins)

As the ability to work with symbols advanced, humans noticed more patterns and gained more control. When the ability to perceive patterns allowed humans to make predictions, a religious explanation often accompanied the observations. Science and religion were inseparable from the beginning. Knowing and celebrating the winter solstice was both an astronomical event and a religious time, for example. 

As consciousness, language, and symbolism developed, humans became aware that they were quite different from all the other animals. They walked upright, they did not have fur, they used fire and tools and they spoke a language. As a result, they wondered why they were so distinct and more intelligent. My guess is that humans began to think of themselves as special and as having a special purpose. The development of religion helped explain why they were special and also the reason they were put on the Earth.


See my blog: The Human Revolution: Symbolic Culture

See my blog: How Our Concept of Time Is Embedded & Derived from Our Language

See my blog: Virtual Human Meta-Time

NOTE: This idea of being special was probably a feeling that was not well articulated in the beginning. However, around the time of the Neolithic, as Cauvin suggested, it burst into bloom and a fully developed mythology arose with powerful human-like divinities. It was believed that gods or God created human beings in their own image or acted as their guardians or mentors. See the Afterword in this blog.


12th-13th century Mosaic.
God giving life to Adam. A story that is sacred to Jews, Christians, and Moslems.
"Monreale, Sicily: cathedral, mosaic of the creation of Adam"
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Monreale_-_Kathedrale_Mosaik_Adam_01.JPG

Fourth: 
Religion


All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. 
Albert Einstein
Like most behaviors that are found in societies throughout the world, religion must have been present in the ancestral human population before the dispersal from Africa 50,000 years ago. Although religious rituals usually involve dance and music, they are also very verbal, since the sacred truths have to be stated. If so, religion, at least in its modern form, cannot pre-date the emergence of language. Nicholas Wade  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_origin_of_religions

From what we know about recent and contemporary hunter-gatherers, the first religions were shamanistic. "A shaman is someone who is regarded as having access to, and influence in, the world of benevolent and malevolent spirits..."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamanism


A modern day shaman. "Valentin Hagdaev - head shaman of Olkhon. Lake Baikal. Buryatia. Siberia"
A modern day shaman.
"Valentin Hagdaev - head shaman of Olkhon. Lake Baikal. Buryatia. Siberia"


See my blog: Time & Consciousness

See my blog: The Development of Consciousness & the Origins of Religion

See my blog: Creation Myths and Consciousness

Fifth: 
All religions, from the very beginning, contained a fundamental assumption about the human relation to the gods or the spirit world.

The following underlying assumption has been part of religion and science and guided human development. This is the central idea that has propelled human culture and civilization ever since. This was true for shamanistic religions, for polytheism and monotheism and is also true for science today.


THE FUNDAMENTAL IDEA IS THIS:

From the most 'primitive' beliefs to the most modern religions and science, 
in all cultures, and all civilizations across the globe, 
there was/is an underlying uniquely human logic: 

There are forces
in the external reality
outside of human beings
which can be known
and once known can be influenced


This idea allowed us to create agriculture in the Neolithic era and to send rockets to the moon in the 20th century. Like Cauvin, I think this belief came first. So at the beginning of this period of development, humankind needed to believe the spirits were knowable. This faith then led to increased skills and knowledge. All of this was motivated by a basic animal instinct, the instinct for survival. Gaining knowledge and power meant that humans would have a better chance of surviving.


AFTERWORD

Other people may have different ideas about how and why this happened. I welcome additional models. But I believe my basic concept is sound. 

Also I would like to add: Its been only about 350 years ago since science and religion were closely intertwined. The break between the two began in the 17th century. In 1661 the clear difference between chemistry and alchemy was elucidated in the book The Sceptical Chymist by Robert Boyle. Newton's discovery of the precise laws of motion and gravity (published 1687) also spawned a very different idea of God, i.e., God the great watchmaker of the Universe. 

Yet for thousands of years, scientific observations such as the motions of the planets and their identification with the gods were part of human thinking. For example, the ability to determine the exact time of the winter solstice was both an astronomical achievement and a time for religious celebrations. BTW this intertwining is still true today with Christmas in the West occurring just days after the winter solstice.


The Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa (Enuma Anu Enlil Tablet 63) refers to the record of astronomical observations of Venus, as preserved in numerous cuneiform tablets dating from the first millennium BCE.
Babylonians were making careful scientific observations of the planet Venus and recording them on these clay tablets. At the same time, the goddess Ishtar (next two images) was associated with the planet Venus. This shows the connection between knowledge, science, and religion.
FROM WIKIPEDIA 
"The Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa (Enuma Anu Enlil Tablet 63) refers to the record of astronomical observations of Venus, as preserved in numerous cuneiform tablets dating from the first millennium BCE. It is believed that this astronomical record was first compiled during the reign of King Ammisaduqa (or Ammizaduga), the fourth ruler after Hammurabi. Thus, the origins of this text should probably be dated to around the mid-seventeenth century BCE. (according to the Middle Chronology).
"The tablet recorded the rise times of Venus and its first and last visibility on the horizon before or after sunrise and sunset (the heliacal risings and settings of Venus) in the form of lunar dates. These observations are recorded for a period of 21 years."


The king presents his daughter to the goddess Nannaya.  The crescent moon represents the god Sin, the sun the Shamash and the star the goddess Ishtar.
Grey-black limestone material:
The star, top left, was the symbol for the goddess Ishtar -- see her picture next. 
"(1186–1172 BCE): The king presents his daughter to the goddess Nannaya. 
The crescent moon represents the god Sin, the sun the Shamash and the star the goddess Ishtar." 


The sacred, powerful and central Babylonian goddess Ishtar.  Her symbol was the star and she was associated with the planet Venus. " 'Burney Relief' ...from about 1800-1750 BC."
The sacred, powerful and central Babylonian goddess Ishtar. 
Her symbol was the star and she was associated with the planet Venus.
" 'Burney Relief' ...from about 1800-1750 BC."
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Burney_Relief_Babylon_-1800-1750.JPG


See my blog about the prehistoric use of science: 
Computing the Winter Solstice at Newgrange: 
Was Neolithic Science Equal to or Better Than Ancient Greek or Roman Science?

Tuesday, November 14, 2017

The Science of Prospection and the Myth of Prometheus

THE SCIENCE-PSYCHOLOGY OF PROSPECTION
A
ND THE MYTH OF PROMETHEUS

The relatively new Science of Prospection is about how human beings "contemplate the future" and that this trait may be the principle difference that "sets us apart from the other animals" according to a recent article in the New York Times.

"We are misnamed. We call ourselves Homo sapiens, the “wise man,” but ...what makes us wise? What sets us apart from other animals? What best distinguishes our species is an ability that scientists are just beginning to appreciate: We contemplate the future. Our singular foresight [ED: my emphasis] created civilization and sustains society.
"A more apt name for our species would be Homo prospectus, because we thrive by considering our prospects."
We Aren’t Built to Live in the Moment
By Martin E. P. Seligman and John Tierney, May 19, 2017
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/19/opinion/sunday/why-the-future-is-always-on-your-mind.html

The central point of the Times article is that "forethought" is what distinguishes humans from other animals. Yet this contemporary cutting-edge concept and its associated science has ancient origins. Furthermore these ancient origins are reflected even in the name of this science.

The prefix pro-, for example, in the word 'prospection', derives originally from the Greek and means today:
"a prefix of priority in space or time having especially a meaning of advancing or projecting forward or outward"
which came from the Latin
"onward in time or space" <Latin: procedere> <English: proceed>
but was derived originally from the Greek 
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/pro-

Yet most importantly the name of the Greek god Prometheus, who was the godly benefactor of mankind, meant 'forethought', the prefix pro- being part of his name. So the notion of human nature and "forethought" goes back thousands of years to the myth of Prometheus whose godly life and fate was intertwined with that of us humans. 

Word origin of 'Prometheus'
[Greek] Prometheus, lit., forethought <promÄ“thes, thinking before> < pro-, before (see pro) + mathein, to learn (see mathematics)>
Collins English Dictionary
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/prometheus



Prometheus stealing fire from the Gods to give it to human beings.
Prometheus stealing fire from the gods to give it to human beings.

While most people know that Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to man, they may not know that according to the Greeks he was the father of mankind, that he made humans from clay. In another telling of the myth he was the godly benefactor of humankind who did not create humans but was given the task of assigning human their animal traits. Because his brother had already given away the best traits to the other animals such as fur, claws and swiftness, Prometheus had to give these naked defenseless animals something to help them survive, so he gave human beings forethought and then taught them all the arts which created civilization. 


From the Louvre Museum, Prometheus creates humans as Athena watches. (Roman, 3rd Century CE)
From the Louvre Museum, Prometheus creates humans as Athena watches. (Roman, 3rd Century CE)


The following quotes are from the ancient Greek play
Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus, 5th Century BCE  (trans. Weir Smyth)
http://www.theoi.com/Titan/TitanPrometheus.html

Prometheus said "Listen to the miseries that beset mankind--how they were witless before and I made them have sense and endowed them with reason... [They] managed everything without judgment, until I taught them to discern the risings of the stars and their settings, which are difficult to distinguish." [ED: i.e., how to tell time and the timing of the seasons by the stars]

I think it is significant that Prometheus first taught 'primitive' humans about time before he went on to talk about the arts that he taught humans. In other words telling time was a key that opened the door to learning the skills and crafts that created civilization.

Again in Prometheus Bound, Prometheus said (speaking of himself in third person), "-- every art possessed by man comes from Prometheus." This passage indicates that ancient people believed Prometheus instructed humans in all the various arts, crafts and skills that created civilization.

I feel that the connection between these newest scientific findings about the nature of human beings and this western myth that echoes these ideas is important. But when I did a search on Google for "Prospection and Prometheus," I found no article about the relationship. 

The myth(s) of Prometheus -- there are actually quite a few stories from various sources, not just one myth -- reach deep into the human psyche (another Greek word, the name of a Greek goddess, now part of the word 'psychology'). I believe these stories might offer clues about our basic nature and assist this new Science of Prospection in its research.

For example, the famous myth about Prometheus stealing fire from the gods and giving it to mankind, has profound implications. Scientists now believe that the use of fire goes back at least 400,000 years and possibly a million years. 
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-earliest-example-of-hominid-fire-171693652/

According to the myth Prometheus not only stole the fire but also showed humans how to keep and tend a fire. In stealing fire from the gods, Prometheus taught humans how to think ahead because starting a fire from scratch, keeping a fire going, cutting wood for the winter, drying the wood -- all took forethought, the skill needed to master time.

"It is also said that Prometheus fancied mankind and, according to Hyginus' Fabulae, he taught them how to keep fire alive when they first got it from the gods."
GREEKGODS.ORG
https://www.greek-gods.org/titans/prometheus.php

Otzi, the discovered neolithic frozen 'iceman' who died 5000 years ago long before the Prometheus myths were written down, carried with him "a little fire-starting kit, and a birchbark container holding embers wrapped in maple leaves" according to National Geographic. The fire starting kit contained flint, pyrites and tinder fungus which indicated a 'flint and steel' way of creating a spark that would be caught in the fine dry fungus and then fanned into a flame. 
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/07/iceman/hall-text

A modern way to start a fire with a match.
A modern way to start a fire with a match.

But the story goes even deeper. According to the Smithsonian Magazine: "Wherever humans have gone in the world, they have carried with them two things, language and fire." The article claimed that fire was found even in hot climates where food was abundant. Without exception fire and language have been and are part of human cultures.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/why-fire-makes-us-human-72989884/

This is especially interesting because in another article in my blog, DeconstructingTime, I documented the connection between tool making and language. I believe that fire can be considered a basic tool which led to the creation of many other tools.

For example, the following website lists many of the different ways that 'primitive' humans used fire for making tools, clearing land, making dugout canoes and bowls, and bending and shaping wood for baskets or bows.  
http://www.primitiveways.com/uses_of_fire.html

This drawing from 1590 by Theodor de Bry shows a variety of ways that native American Indians used fire in the felling of trees and the hollowing out of a dugout canoe.
This drawing from 1590 by Theodor de Bry shows a variety of ways that native American Indians used fire in the felling of trees and the hollowing out of a dugout canoe.

In this next passage from my blog about language and time, I wrote that tool making and language were related from the beginning.
http://deconstructingtime.blogspot.com/2017/02/concept-of-time-embedded-in-language.html


A SCIENTIFIC STUDY ABOUT TOOL-MAKING AND LANGUAGE

A current brain study implies that from the earliest development of speech, language contained an understanding of time. This study looked at regions of the brain that were activated when using language or tool-making and found that the regions were the same. This suggests that time was a crucial component for both language and tool-making because language was needed to conceptualize time and to communicate and coordinate with others. This understanding of time was crucial to tool-making since a tool was made for a specific purpose which required forethought. Making a tool required planning along with a number of skills that needed to be done in a certain order. And then in addition these finished tools needed to be available at the appropriate time such as for a hunt or for a harvest.

The study is entitled: Language and tool-making skills evolved at the same time
This study of brain activity has shown that: 
"The same brain activity is used for language production and making complex tools, supporting the theory that they evolved at the same time.
"Dr Georg Meyer, from the University Department of Experimental Psychology, said: 'Our study found correlated blood-flow patterns in the first 10 seconds of undertaking both tasks. This suggests that both tasks depend on common brain areas and is consistent with theories that tool-use and language co-evolved and share common processing networks in the brain.'
"Darwin was the first to suggest that tool-use and language may have co-evolved, because they both depend on complex planning [ED: e.g., a complex understanding of time] and the coordination of actions but until now there has been little evidence to support this."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130903102003.htm

This recent study cited above finds that the same areas of the brain are activated when using language or making tools. Since complex tool-making requires considerable thought about tools used to make tools, the use of various materials, and the order of steps in the process, it seems likely that language and its concept of time was an integral part of both making tools and passing that information on to succeeding generations.

Here is a recent article about the steps required to make a bow and arrow in Paleolithic times from the University of Tuebingen as reported by the DailyMail in the UK.

"Researchers from the University of Tuebingen say that...making the bow [ED: in Paleolithic times] took 22 raw materials and three semi-finished goods (binding materials and multi-component glue) as well as five production phases. Further steps were needed to make the complementary arrows, reports the Cambridge Archaeological Journal. Other primates such as chimps are able to use tools, but complex processes such as making bows are beyond them."  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2170895/Inventing-bows-arrows-took-early-humans-TWO-MILLION-years.html

This 1590 drawing by John White shows how native American Indians cooked their fish.
This 1590 drawing by John White shows how native American Indians cooked their fish.

CONCLUSION

Fire can be thought of as a basic tool. The gift of fire was believed to have been given to humans by Prometheus, the god of forethought, along with all the arts of civilization. So it appears that the ancient Greeks had a basic understanding of our uniquely human nature and our ability to plan for the future. 

As I said earlier in this blog, I feel that the connection between the Science of Prospection with this important western myth is significant. I hope that researchers in the field will look into this connection and also look further for other insights that the ancient Greeks may have had about human nature.




Monday, October 16, 2017

Modern Science Confirms DeconstructingTime Blog

Cutting-Edge Science Confirms Ideas in This Blog DeconstructingTime

Almost five years ago, when I started this blog, I began with these words:
"While time exists independently of human beings, our perception and experience of time is uniquely human. I believe it is the modern human -- i.e., Homo sapiens sapiens -- sense of time that is the key difference between humans and the other animals."

EXPLORATIONS INTO THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE OF TIME 
December 24, 2012 
https://deconstructingtime.blogspot.com/2012/12/de-constructing-time-explorations-into.html

It turns out that these ideas are now current thinking. A recent article in the New York Times said this:
"We are misnamed. We call ourselves Homo sapiens, the “wise man,” but ...what makes us wise? What sets us apart from other animals? What best distinguishes our species is an ability that scientists are just beginning to appreciate: We contemplate the future. Our singular foresight [ED: my emphasis] created civilization and sustains society.
"A more apt name for our species would be Homo prospectus, because we thrive by considering our prospects."
We Aren’t Built to Live in the Moment
By MARTIN E. P. SELIGMAN and JOHN TIERNEY, MAY 19, 2017

This NOAA map shows the three-month outlook for temperature probability 12 months in the future.
This NOAA map shows the three-month outlook for temperature probability 12 months in the future. Thinking about the future is central to human nature, civilization, and survival.

But contemplating the future is intimately connected both to a sense of time and to our abilities to recall the past.

The Times article goes on to say:
" ...studies of children’s development show that they’re not able to imagine future scenes until they’ve gained the ability to recall personal experiences, typically somewhere between the ages of 3 and 5. 
"Perhaps the most remarkable evidence comes from recent brain imaging research. 
When recalling a past event, the hippocampus must combine three distinct pieces of information — what happened, when it happened and where it happened — that are each stored in a different part of the brain. Researchers have found that the same circuitry is activated when people imagine a novel scene [ED: that is imagining the future]."

This key ability to remember and work with "what happened, when it happened and where it happened" is essentially the idea I put forward for in my blog about virtual human meta-time. By human meta-time I meant our shared ability to imagine and conceptualize space and time in the past, present and future which requires the ability to remember and conceive of things with the basic attributes of "what, when and where." See my full blog about this:
https://deconstructingtime.blogspot.com/2013/01/virtual-human-meta-time.html

Still from the Méliès 1902 sci-fi film: A Trip to the Moon. The command module that held the astronauts was inserted into a super-gun that sent it to the moon. Plus a 1964 NASA drawing of the command module that would take astronauts to the moon.
The human ability to imagine the future and then to create that future is one of our most remarkable traits.
TOP: Still from the Méliès 1902 sci-fi film: A Trip to the Moon. The command module that held the astronauts was inserted into a super-gun that sent the module to the moon.
BOTTOM: A 1964 NASA drawing of the command module that would take astronauts to the moon. The similarity in shape between the 1902 film fantasy and the actual NASA design is remarkable. (NASA)

In another blog, Animal Senses Compared to the Human Sense of TimeI made the point that we humans have a unique understanding of time -- specifically we are the only animal that understands 'when' and can place events in a relative time-line of past, present and future.
https://deconstructingtime.blogspot.com/2014/08/animal-senses-compared-to-human-sense.html

The article in the New York Times adds:
"The central role of prospection has emerged in recent studies of both conscious and unconscious mental processes..." and the article links to:
The Special Issue of Review of General Psychology: The Science of Prospection 

This picture shows Tesla's visionary ideas for an electric world that was powered by wireless transmission.
This picture shows Nikola Tesla's visionary ideas for an electric world 
that was powered by wireless transmission. 
This idea has now been put into practice more than 100 years later, but not on a large scale.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_power_transfer


THE CONTEMPORARY IDEA OF 'FORETHOUGHT' 
HAS ANCIENT ORIGINS

But there is one more intriguing idea that this article from the Times suggests.
The central point is that "forethought" is what distinguishes humans from other animals. The article says:
"Our singular foresight [ED: my emphasis] created civilization and sustains society.
"A more apt name for our species would be Homo prospectus, because we thrive by considering our prospects."

But the idea of human nature and "forethought" is ancient going back thousands of years to the myth of Prometheus. The Greek god Prometheus was not only associated with forethought, his name actually meant "forethought." While most people know that he stole fire from the gods and gave it to man, they may not know that according to the Greeks he was the father of mankind, that he made humans from clay, or in another telling of the myth the godly benefactor of humankind. So the idea of forethought has been associated with humankind for a very long time. 


From the Louvre Museum, Prometheus creates humans as Athena watches. (Roman, 3rd Century CE)
From the Louvre Museum, Prometheus creates humans as Athena watches. (Roman, 3rd Century CE)

Forethought was a fundamental ability that Prometheus passed onto humans as he taught them a variety of skills such as how to tell time from the stars, how to farm and how to sail ships -- all of which required a sense of time and planning. And, of course, he famously stole fire from the gods, but even so tending a fire and having the tools and fuel to make and sustain fire required planning and forethought.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus

It seems that modern science has now come full circle to confirm an idea that has been an integral part of the Western heritage. 

This is not unusual as many ancient Greek ideas such as 'catharsis' -- an idea put forward by Aristotle in 335 BCE -- are part of our thinking. Meteorology, the study of weather, was a term coined by Aristotle in 350 BCE. Terms like "a siren song" or an "odyssey" are part of our everyday language. And the word astronaut was derived in part from the Greek legend of Jason and the Golden Fleece as those adventurous sailors were called Argonauts. Plus the word psychology and the science of psychology comes from the Greek god Psyche, the goddess of the soul.

ABOUT PROMETHEUS, TIME 
AND FORETHOUGHT

To understand the detailed and intimate relationship between human beings and a concept of time and forethought, I want to delve into ancient sources in an attempt to shed some light on ancient thinking.

According to Greek mythology Prometheus made humans out of clay and so he was the father of mankind. Or in another version of the story, he was the benefactor of humankind who endowed humans with all their uniquely human traits at the very beginning. But in addition he passed onto humans his ability to think and plan for the future. As I have said, Prometheus was not only associated with the idea of forethought, his very name meant forethought. 

Word origin of 'Prometheus'
[Greek] Prometheus, lit., forethought <promÄ“thes, thinking before> < pro-, before (see pro) + mathein, to learn (see mathematics)>
Collins English Dictionary
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/prometheus

As the father of humankind, he taught humans how to tell time and also how to calculate and and use numbers, in part to work with time. According to the playwright Aeschylus, telling time was the first skill he taught humans and was necessary for all the other skills or 'arts' that Prometheus showed humans.


The following quotes are from the ancient Greek play
Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus, 5th Century BCE  (trans. Weir Smyth)

In the following passage from Prometheus Bound, Prometheus said "Listen to the miseries that beset mankind--how they were witless before and I made them have sense and endowed them with reason... [They] managed everything without judgment, until I taught them to discern the risings of the stars and their settings, which are difficult to distinguish." [ED: i.e., how to tell time and the timing of the seasons by the stars]

I think it is significant that Prometheus first taught 'primitive' humans about time and then numbers (see the full passage next) -- an essential skill when measuring or referring to time -- before he went on to talk about the arts that he taught humans. In other words telling time was the key that opened the door to learning the skills and crafts that created civilization.

Here is the full passage from Prometheus Bound:
"[After stealing fire from the gods Prometheus instructed mankind in the arts :] 
Prometheus : Listen to the miseries that beset mankind--how they were witless before and I made them have sense and endowed them with reason. I will not speak to upbraid mankind but to set forth the friendly purpose that inspired my blessing. First of all, though they had eyes to see, they saw to no avail; they had ears, but they did not understand ; but, just as shapes in dreams, throughout their length of days, without purpose they wrought all things in confusion. They had neither knowledge of houses built of bricks and turned to face the sun nor yet of work in wood; but dwelt beneath the ground like swarming ants, in sunless caves. They had no sign either of winter or of flowery spring or of fruitful summer, on which they could depend but managed everything without judgment, until I taught them to discern the risings of the stars and their settings, which are difficult to distinguish.
"Yes, and numbers, too, chiefest of sciences, I invented for them, and the combining of letters, creative mother of the Mousai's (Muses') arts, with which to hold all things in memory." [ED: So in addition to telling time with the stars, he showed them how remember things.]


A modern Prometheus statue at Vidraru Dam in Romania
A modern Prometheus statue at Vidraru Dam in Romania.

There is no definitive Greek 'Bible', as there is in the Judeo-Christian tradition, that tells one single story of Prometheus. Various versions list the following 'arts' that Prometheus taught humans.

He taught men the art of mining and forging of the metals bronze, iron, silver, and gold (Prometheus Bound)
He took credit for the domestication of working animals (Prometheus Bound): "I, too, first brought brute beasts beneath the yoke to be subject to the collar and the pack-saddle, so that they might bear in men's stead their heaviest burdens; and to the chariot I harnessed horses and made them obedient to the rein..."
And he invented the sailing ship (Prometheus Bound): "It was I and no one else who invented the mariner's flaxen-winged car that roams the sea."

A modern compilation of the various myths said:
"He taught men how to farm, build wagons and houses, to tell time from the stars, and how to read, write, count and calculate. He taught them metallurgy and navigation plus many other arts."
 Phil Simpson, Guidebook to the Constellations: Telescopic Sights, Tales, and Myths

Another modern source said:
"It is also said that Prometheus fancied mankind and, according to Hyginus' Fabulae, he taught them how to keep fire alive when they first got it from the gods. He also taught them how to predict future from their dreams, how to make remedies from the plants, how to live and share with each other and also instructed them into occult art among many other things."
GREEKGODS.ORG
https://www.greek-gods.org/titans/prometheus.php

In perhaps the most complete version of the story by Aeschylus in Prometheus Bound, Prometheus said (speaking of himself in third person), "-- every art possessed by man comes from Prometheus." This passage indicates that ancient people believed Prometheus instructed humans in all the various arts, crafts and skills that created civilization.

All the 'arts' as Prometheus called them, required a detailed understanding of process. And process requires a sophisticated understanding of time -- what to do, with what, in what order, and by what time. So all of the skills that Prometheus gave men involved an understanding of time.

Farming is a good example. A farmer had to have seeds that he saved from the previous growing season, he had to know when to prepare the ground and when to plant and when to harvest. He had to have a number of tools to till the soil plus work animals to help him plow the fields along with harnesses, feed and shelter for the work animals. All of this required complex planning along with a way to measure and understand the passage of time and an understanding of what must be done in what order.


Statue of Prometheus at Rockefeller Center in New York City
The inscription behind this statue of Prometheus at Rockefeller Center in New York City reads, “Prometheus, teacher in every art, brought the fire that hath proved to mortals a means to mighty ends.” The website about Rockefeller Center goes on to say: "Over time, this classical figure came to represent human striving and the quest for knowledge...(and thus is given credit for civilization and progress)."
https://www.rockefellercenter.com/blog/2014/04/09/rock-history2/

A modern interpretation 
of the Prometheus myth 
might read as follows:
Homo sapiens sapiens (i.e., us) were given an innate ability to sense the passage of time (a unique part of the human brain -- see my blog). Over millennia they developed the ability to understand yearly and seasonal progressions from the stars. It was essential that humans understood how to tell time from the stars and then learned mathematical skills before creating the 'arts' necessary to develop civilization. 
NOTE 1: The standard translation for the second half of Prometheus's name, i.e., metheus, is 'thought', but the word 'math' and 'mathematics' is also derived from this root. See the dictionary definition above.
NOTE 2: The importance of telling yearly and seasonal time at the beginning of civilization is also echoed in the Judeo-Christian Bible on the fourth day of creation in The Book of Genesis
(14) "And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
(16) "And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also."

In conclusion, my guess is that the Prometheus myth might yield other insights into the human condition, if modern scientists take a closer look. 



AFTERWORD


Over the last five years I have written in my blogs that Greek mythology and the myth of Prometheus in particular contained many important ideas about the element of time for humankind and human civilization.
Here is what I said about Prometheus at the end of my blog in August  2014: 
Animal Senses Compared to the Human Sense of Time
____________________________________________________________

The incredibly intuitive ancient Greeks said most of what I have written about the human sense of time through their mythology. In this other version of the myth Prometheus does not create humans but is given the task of endowing humans with unique traits.


THE CREATION OF HUMANS AND THE ANIMALS

"Prometheus was said to be wise and possessed the gift of foresight and often considered what would be needed several years in the future." 
http://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/The_Myths/Creation_of_Man_by_Prometheus/creation_of_man_by_prometheus.html

The brother of Prometheus, Epimetheus, who was rash and impulsive, was given the job of creating the animals, fishes and birds. Prometheus, a god who was wise and had the power of foresight, took his time making man out of clay. Yet when it came to giving man attributes, it turned out that this brother of Prometheus had already given most qualities away. 

"Epimetheus began by giving the best traits to the animals — swiftness, courage, cunning, stealth, and the like — and he wound up with nothing to give to man. So Prometheus took the matter in hand and gave man an upright posture like the gods."
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/m/mythology/summary-and-analysis-greek-mythology/the-beginnings-8212-prometheus-and-man-and-the-five-ages-of-man-and-the-flood

Yet since the natural qualities of fur, flight and strength etc. and had been taken, Prometheus went a step further to help mankind. He famously stole fire from the gods.


"The Creation of Man" by Prometheus, Roman, 4th Century CE.
"The Creation of Man" by Prometheus, Roman, 4th Century CE.

"Fire was bestowed upon mankind by Prometheus and with it came the beginning of civilization. Prometheus taught man how to craft tools from iron ore. He showed them how to plant crops and live through agriculture. Man learnt to craft weapons to defend themselves from wild animals. With fire they learnt to survive cold winters and defy the seasons. With fire man began to thrive and became superior to the animals of the wild."
http://classicalwisdom.com/prometheus-the-creation-of-man/

In stealing fire from the gods, Prometheus also taught humans how to think ahead because starting a fire, keeping a fire going, cutting wood for the winter -- all took forethought, the skill needed to master time.

By stealing fire from the gods, teaching men crafts and agriculture, Prometheus, the god of forethought, gave man the gift of long term time, a quality more powerful than claws and sharp teeth. He taught humans about planning, about steps in a process, about the concept of 'when'. So only humans were given the ability to understand this dimension of time -- something the creatures impulsively made by his brother, Epimetheus, did not have.

Greek pottery, 550 BCE, Prometheus is on the right,  being punished after stealing fire from the Gods so that he could give it to humans.
Greek pottery, 550 BCE, Prometheus is on the right, 
being punished after stealing fire from the Gods so that he could give it to humans.