DOMINANT IMAGES OF HUMANKIND THROUGH HISTORY

         

Source Period

Approximate Date

Dominant Image

Culture in which Image is at Present Active

Significance For Post-Industrial Era

         
Middle Paleolithic 250,000- 40,000 B.C. The Hunter, focus of the male- dominated culture field of "Great Hunt" Few cultures in its pure form most in its militaristic equivalent Jeopardize cross-cultured peace; likely necessary for police operations, however
         
Upper Paleolithic 30,000-15,000 B.C. Including sense of spiritual affinity between beasts and man, of which toteism is an expression Various American Indian cultures with traditions intact Has relevance for a renewed sense of partnership with other life forms on the planet
         
Neolithic After 9,000 B.C. The planter, the child of the Goddess; the giver of life Hindu and certain other cultures Has possible relevance for balancing male-emphasis of Western culture
         
  3500 B.C. The human civilized through submission to seasonal variations and ruling elites Most cultures Has relevance as historical analogy: man systematically explores his inner world
         
Semite 2350 B.C. The human as a mere creature fashioned of clay to serve the gods, as a slave; but superior to and having dominion over nature. Notion of "chosen people" Orthodox Jewish, Christian, Islamic faiths Stands in its present form as an obstacle to emergence of new ecological understandings
         
Zoroastrian 1200 B.C. The human having free will, having to choose between good and evil, mythology of individual salvation All Western cultures, in a secular form Presents a basic polarity needing to be dialectically transcended / synthesized
         
Age of the Polis 500 B.C. Representing the absolute fulfillment of the Indian image of man as yogi released from the wheel of karma, death and rebirth. Intrinsic divinity of man realizable through own efforts Hindu/ Buddhist Could contribute to a new "self realization ethic" for our culture if incorporated into a larger synthesis
         
    China: Confucius and the paradigm of the "superior man" as politically and socially concerned sage Oriental cultures Could contribute to a new "ecological ethic" for our culture if incorporated into a larger synthesis
         
    Levant: as a slave, submissive to God in the image of a despot Some forms of Islam,

Christianity

Possible to see ecological requirements in this light
         
    Greece: Aeschylus and image of human as tragic hero, Most Western cultures to some degree Could provide a guiding image for personal/ societal Transformation in time of crisis
    Greece: Mystery religions, the person becomes so attached to the material things of this world that he has lost touch with his own true nature, which is not of these things, but of spirit--himself the very being and model of that Spirit of which each is but a particle All cultures, but never very visible Could contribute to deemphazing material over consumption and ecological understanding
         
    Greece: science and objective knowledge as aesthetic rather than utilitarian activity; naturalistic emphasis in science art, and philosophy None in which dominant Has relevance to counterbalancing the "technological ethic."
         
Early Christian 100 A.D. Two contrary images--(1) following the Semite and Zoroastrian tradition God's servant--obey or be damned; (1) Traditional Judaeo / Christian/Muslim cultures; (1) A dominant image that needs to be incorporated into a larger synthesis
    (2) that of the Gnostics, similar to the image of the Greek mystery religions man "saved" by self-knowledge (2) Most cultures as an underground view (2) Could contribute to new "self - realization
         
Industrial Revolution/

Enlightenment

1500 A.D. "Economic man" --individualistic, materialistic, rationalistic; objective knowledge, utilitarian/economic values coming into dominance Most modern industrial nations Likely inappropriate for transition to post industrial era
         
Modern Social

Science

1900 A.D. Man as "beast" -- instinctual drives predominant, a "creature" of evolution" whose survival depends on competitive adaptation and/ or suppression of base instincts Most modern industrial nations An image needing to be incorporated into a larger synthesis
         
Modern Behavioral

Science

1913 A.D. Man as "mechanism"-- to be understood in ways found successful by nineteenth century physics Primarily United States Promoted as providing the most appropriate basis for man's next era, perhaps now itself needing to be incorporated into larger synthesis
         
Modern Trans-disciplinary Science 1954 A.D. Man as a "goal-directed,adaptive learning system" Image has not yet reached "takeoff point" Provides a possible conceptual basis for integrating most other images of man in an evolutionary frame of reference
         
Various times and places from circa 1500B.C. to the present   Man as "Spirit"--the "philosophia perennis" view of man and the universe as essentially consciousness in manifest form Most cultures, in various degrees of purity Could contribute to needed synthesis of "opposing" images as it sees apparent opposites as differing aspects of the same underlying reality