Paper 68 Overview: The Dawn of Civilization

This paper describes how human civilization began and developed over time. It explains that civilization is something people learn and not something they are born with. The Dalamatia teachers helped start cooperative society, with the blue race benefiting the most from these early teachings.

Civilization developed through various stages including protective groups, land techniques, and cultural evolution. People had to learn to work together to survive, even though early humans were not naturally cooperative. The paper also shows how society is shaped by the relationship between land and people.

This paper tells the story of humanity's long journey from an animal-like existence to the development of civilization. Civilization is not something people are born with, but must be learned by each new generation through education and social inheritance.

The Dalamatia teachers started cooperative society 300,000 years ago, and humanity learned from these ideas for many generations. The blue race gained the most from these teachings, followed by the red race, while the black race benefited the least. In more recent times, the yellow and white races have shown the most advanced social development on earth.

Early humans were not naturally friendly toward each other but learned that joining together made them stronger. People came together in groups to survive because a lone person was in great danger without a tribal mark showing they belonged to a group.

Primitive society was built on the need for mutual protection. Humans learned that organized groups were stronger than the same number of individuals acting alone. They discovered that working together was better for attacking nature and defending against enemies, which is why civilization has continued despite many setbacks.

Civilization came from early human efforts to overcome their dislike of being alone. Even though individuals in a civilization might clash with each other, civilization itself shows that people are trying to make progress rather than remaining stagnant. Intelligence has helped cultural progress, but society mainly aims to reduce risk in life.

Hunger and sex love were two basic drives that brought early humans together. Fear, especially ghost fear, and vanity also helped keep people together in groups. History shows that humans have long struggled for food, and society has been built around this need. The family became the first successful peace group when men and women learned to adjust their differences while teaching peace to their children.

Primitive desires created the first societies, but fear of ghosts helped keep them together and gave them a purpose beyond physical life. Ghost dreams were especially frightening to early humans and pushed them to form associations for mutual protection against imagined dangers of the spirit world.

This fear of spirits introduced a new kind of fear beyond the basic needs of individuals. Ghost fear helped change loose social groups into more disciplined communities in ancient times. While hunger and love brought people together, only the influence of peace-promoting revelations could prevent these emotions from eventually leading to conflict.

All modern social institutions come from the primitive customs of our ancestors. Today's conventions are modified and expanded customs from yesterday. What habit is to an individual, custom is to a group, and group customs develop into tribal traditions.

These customs began as efforts to adjust group living to the conditions of mass existence. People were strictly controlled by tribal customs, with everything they did following specific rules. However, there were occasional individuals who dared to think differently and improve the way people lived, allowing society to evolve over time.

Land is the stage for society, and humans are the actors who must adjust to their environment. The evolution of customs always depends on the ratio of land to people, even when this is difficult to see. Human land technique, or maintenance arts, plus standards of living, equal the total of folkways and customs.

The earliest human cultures developed along rivers in the Eastern Hemisphere. There were four major steps in civilization's progress: the collection stage (gathering food), the hunting stage (using weapons), the pastoral stage (domesticating animals), and the agricultural stage (growing plants). Agriculture was the highest form of material civilization, allowing more people to live on the same amount of land.

Humans are creatures of the soil, and no matter how hard they try to escape from the land, they will ultimately fail. The basic struggle of humanity has always been for land, and the first social groups formed to win these land struggles. The relationship between land and people is the foundation of all social civilization.

Human intelligence, through arts and sciences, has increased what the land can produce, while controlling population growth. This provided the food and free time needed to build cultural civilization. When land yields are reduced or population increases, human struggle is renewed, bringing out the worst traits of human nature. Better land yield, mechanical arts, and appropriate population levels help develop the better side of human nature.