Paper 69 Overview: Primitive Human Institutions

Humans are superior to animals because they can appreciate humor, art, and religion, and they build tools, communicate, and create institutions. These institutions help humans work less while also making them feel more secure, and over time they become traditions that are passed down through generations.

Human institutions serve social needs but can sometimes make it harder for individuals to express themselves. There are three main types of institutions: those for self-maintenance (like industry), those for self-perpetuation (like family), and those for self-gratification (like games and entertainment).

Humans are different from animals because they can appreciate humor, art, and religion, and they create tools, communicate, and build institutions. When people live together in groups for a long time, they develop activities that become institutions, which help people work less and feel safer.

Civilized people take pride in their stable institutions, which began as customs from the past. These customs were protected by taboos and made important by religion, and over time they changed into traditions and then into rules that everyone follows.

All human institutions serve a social need from either the past or present, but when they become too strong, they can make it harder for individuals to be themselves. People should control their institutions rather than letting institutions control them.

There are three main types of institutions. First are those for self-maintenance, which come from food hunger and include industry, property, and war for gain. Second are those for self-perpetuation, which come from sex hunger and include family, education, and religion. Third are those for self-gratification, which come from vanity and include dress, social customs, and games.

Early industry grew as a protection against famine, with humans learning from animals to store food during good times. Before early planning and industry, most tribes suffered from poverty and hunger, as humans had to compete with animals for food.

Primitive man did not enjoy hard work and would only rush when in danger. The concept of doing a task within a certain time limit is a modern idea. Ancient people were not rushed, but the struggle for existence and desire for better living standards pushed naturally inactive early humans toward industry.

The first divisions of labor in primitive society were determined by natural and then social circumstances. There were several orders of specialization in early human society.

The first specialization was based on sex, with women's work coming from caring for children and men becoming hunters and fighters. The second was based on age and disease, with older men and those with disabilities making tools and weapons. Other specializations developed from religion, master-slave relationships, and differences in physical and mental abilities.

Just as marriage by contract followed marriage by capture, trade by barter followed seizure by raids. A long period of piracy came between early silent barter and modern methods of exchange.

The first barter was conducted by armed traders who left their goods in neutral places. Women held the first markets as they were the burden bearers, while men were warriors. Early writing came from trade records, and message sending evolved from smoke signals to modern communication methods.

Capital is labor applied to the future instead of the present. Food storage was an early form of insurance for survival, creating the first problems between capital and labor. The person with food had an advantage over those without it.

There were eight basic reasons for saving: hunger and planning ahead, love of family, vanity to display wealth, desire for social status, craving for power, fear of ghosts and paying priests, desire to buy wives, and self-gratification. As civilization grew, people added new reasons for saving beyond just food hunger.

Primitive society with its industrial, regulative, religious, and military divisions rose through fire, animals, slaves, and property. Fire immediately separated humans from animals because it allowed people to stay on the ground at night since animals fear fire.

Fire was a great civilizer, providing humans their first way to be generous without loss by sharing live coals. The household fire was the first educator, requiring watchfulness and dependability. Fire led to cooking, which saved energy that would have been used for digestion, giving early humans more strength for social culture.

At first, all animals were enemies to humans; people ate them but later learned to domesticate and use them. Domestication happened by accident when hunters surrounded herds to control them until they needed animals for food.

The dog was the first animal to be domesticated, and this difficult process began when a dog followed a hunter home. At first, dogs were used for food, hunting, transportation, and companionship. Dogs' sense of smell led to the belief they could see spirits, creating dog-fetish cults.

Primitive people readily enslaved others, with woman being the first slave. Pastoral man enslaved woman as his inferior sex partner, which grew directly from men becoming less dependent on women.

Enslavement was an important link in the chain of human civilization, bridging chaos and laziness with order and civilized activities. It forced backward and lazy peoples to work, creating wealth and leisure for the social advancement of their superiors.

While primitive society was communal, early humans did not follow modern communism ideas. Early communism was a practical adjustment that prevented poverty and want, and begging and prostitution were almost unknown in these ancient tribes.

The right to property is not absolute; it is purely social. But government, law, order, civil rights, social liberties, conventions, peace, and happiness that modern peoples enjoy have grown up around private ownership of property. Though the current social order is not necessarily right or sacred, mankind should move slowly in making changes.