Paper 81 - Development of Modern Civilization, …urantiabooksources.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/081.pdf · THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION ... changes, about 15,000 B.C., civilization

WORK-IN-PROGRESS (DECEMBER 8, 2017) PARALLEL CHART FOR

Paper 81 — Development of Modern Civilization

© 2017 Matthew Block

Sources for Paper 81 (in the order in which they appear)

(1) William Graham Sumner and Albert Galloway Keller, The Science of Society, Volume I (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1927)

(2) Harold Peake and Herbert John Fleure, The Corridors of Time III: Peasants & Potters(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1927)

(3) Leon C. Marshall, The Story of Human Progress (New York: The Macmillan Company,1923, 1925, 1928)

(4) Harold Peake and Herbert John Fleure, The Corridors of Time V: The Steppe & the Sown(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1928)

(5) Henry Fairfield Osborn, Man Rises to Parnassus: Critical Epochs in the Prehistory ofMan (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1927)

(6) Harold Peake and Herbert John Fleure, The Corridors of Time IV: Priests & Kings (NewHaven: Yale University Press, 1927)

(7) William Graham Sumner and Albert Galloway Keller, The Science of Society, VolumeIII (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1927)

Key

(a) Green indicates where a source author first appears, or where he/she reappears.

(b) Yellow highlights most parallelisms.

(c) Tan highlights parallelisms not occurring on the same row, or parallelisms separated byyellowed parallelisms.

(d) An underlined word or words indicates where the source and the UB writer pointedlydiffer from each other.

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(e) Blue indicates original (or “revealed”) information, or UB-specific terminology andconcepts. (What to highlight in this regard is debatable; the highlights are tentative.)

Matthew Block8 December 2017

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SOURCE OR PARALLEL URANTIA PAPER 81

Work-in-progress Version 8 Dec. 2017© 2017 Matthew Block

P A P E R 8 1 —DEVELOPMENT OFM O D E R N C I V I L -IZATION

[Compare 73:0.1.] 81:0.1 Regardless of the ups and downsof the miscarriage of the plans for worldbetterment projected in the missions ofCaligastia and Adam, the basic organicevolution of the human species continuedto carry the races forward in the scale ofhuman progress and racial development.Evolution can be delayed but it cannot bestopped.

81:0.2 The influence of the violet race,though in numbers smaller than had beenplanned, produced an advance incivilization which, since the days ofAdam, has far exceeded the progress ofmankind throughout its entire previousexistence of almost a million years.

1 . T H E C R A D L E O FCIVILIZATION

81:1.1 For about thirty-five thousandyears after the days of Adam, the cradleof civilization was in southwestern Asia,extending from the Nile valley eastwardand slightly to the north across northernArabia, through Mesopotamia, and oninto Turkestan. And climate was thedecisive factor in the establishment ofcivilization in that area.

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[See 80:2.5.] 81:1.2 It was the great climatic andgeologic changes in northern Africa andwestern Asia that terminated the earlymigrations of the Adamites, barring themfrom Europe by the expanded Mediterran-ean and diverting the stream of migrationnorth and east into Turkestan.

By the time of the completion of theseland elevations and associated climaticchanges, about 15,000 B.C., civilizationhad settled down to a world-widestalemate except for the cultural fermentsand biologic reserves of the Andites stillconfined by mountains to the east in Asiaand by the expanding forests in Europe tothe west.

81:1.3 Climatic evolution is now aboutto accomplish what all other efforts hadfailed to do, that is, to compel Eurasianman to abandon hunting for the moreadvanced callings of herding and farming.Evolution may be slow, but it is terriblyeffective.

X: APPROPRIATION OF ENERGIES:MEN (Sumner & Keller 221)

§103. Slavery and Tillage. (Sumner & Keller228)

81:1.4 Since slaves were so generallyemployed by the earlier agriculturists,

Hunters and herders have generally heldit in contempt, especially since they haveregarded it as the very antithesis to thevirile occupation of war—as, in fact,leading to a non-militant, effeminatedisposition (S&K 228).

the farmer was formerly looked down onby both the hunter and the herder.

For ages it was considered menial to tillthe soil;

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[Work with the soil is not a curse; rather is it

the highest blessing to all who are thus

permitted to enjoy the most human of all

human activities (66:7.19).]

wherefore the idea that soil toil is a curse,whereas it is the greatest of all blessings.

IX: APPROPRIATION OF ENERGIES:ANIMALS (Sumner & Keller 205)

§99.* Animals in Religion. (Sumner & Keller216)

The story of the reception accorded to theofferings of Cain and Abel seems toindicate a preference for the pastoralproduct rather than the agricultural ...(S&K 217).

Even in the days of Cain and Abel thesacrifices of the pastoral life were held ingreater esteem than the offerings ofagriculture.

III: THE DAIRY AND THE HERD(Peake & Fleure3 29)

[contd] Earlier anthropologists werewont to recognize three successive stagesin the evolution of human civilization, thehunting, the pastoral, and the agricultural,and it was assumed that all societies thathad reached the third stage must ofnecessity have passed through the othertwo.

81:1.5 Man ordinarily evolved into afarmer from a hunter by transitionthrough the era of the herder,

and this was also true among the Andites,

but more often the evolutionary coercionof climatic necessity would cause

We have now abandoned that view. Wemust admit that a hunting stage precededthe other two forms; we may admit thatan agricultural stage is higher, asmeasured in material comforts, than thepastoral; but we must admit, too, thatsome peoples have passed from a huntingor collecting stage direct to theagricultural (P&F3 29).

whole tribes to pass directly from huntersto successful farmers.

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But this phenomenon of passingimmediately from hunting to agricultureonly occurred in those regions wherethere was a high degree of race mixturewith the violet stock.

II: THE FERTILE CRESCENT ANDTHE NILE (Peake & Fleure3 14)

81:1.6 The evolutionary peoples(notably the Chinese) early learned toplant seeds and to cultivate crops throughobservation of

Myres has also suggested very pertin-ently, that ‘chance seeds and kernels,scattered carelessly, or fruit and nuts,stored squirrel fashion in too damp anook, may sprout and receive similar caretill they are mature enough to repay it’.

the sprouting of seeds accidentallymoistened

To Grant Allen is due the suggestion thatthe idea of cultivation arose from noticinghow luxuriant was the growth of plantsscattered as an offering to the dead over anewly made grave or placed in the graveas food (P&F3 15).

or which had been put in graves as foodfor the departed.

But throughout southwest Asia, along thefertile river bottoms and adjacent plains,the Andites were carrying out theimproved agricultural techniquesinherited from their ancestors, who hadmade farming and gardening the chiefpursuits within the boundaries of thesecond garden.

81:1.7 For thousands of years thedescendants of Adam had grown

There seems little doubt that wheat, alongwith barley, was the earliest plant to becultivated, but the origin of wheat ismuch disputed (P&F3 16).

wheat and barley,

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as improved in the Garden, throughoutthe highlands of the upper border ofMesopotamia.

Men are proverbially creatures of habit,and it is only in some place where men ofdifferent traditions have met and mingledthat we can expect such a change [toagriculture] to have occurred, for themingling of cultures tends to break down‘taboos’ that previously prohibitedchange....

... In [the Fertile Crescent], from veryearly times, the people of the mountainshave come into contact with theirneighbours of the steppe and desert(P&F3 15-16).

The descendants of Adam and Adamsonhere met, traded, and socially mingled.

81:1.8 It was these enforced changes inliving conditions which caused such alarge proportion of the human race tobecome omnivorous in dietetic practice.

When the combination of wheat and fleshbecame available the result was anincrease of energy and a generalstrengthening of the constitution (P&F322).

And the combination of the wheat, rice,and vegetable diet with the flesh of theherds marked a great forward step in thehealth and vigor of these ancient peoples.

2 . T H E T O O L S O FCIVILIZATION

81:2.1 The growth of culture ispredicated upon the development of thetools of civilization. And the tools whichman utilized in his ascent from savagerywere effective just to the extent that theyreleased man power for the accomplish-ment of higher tasks.

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[See 81:6.6, below.]

81:2.2 You who now live amidlatter-day scenes of budding culture andbeginning progress in social affairs, whoactually have some little spare time inwhich to think about society andcivilization, must not overlook the factthat your early ancestors had little or noleisure which could be devoted tothoughtful reflection and social thinking.

VIII: THE APPROPRIATION OFENERGIES: FIRE (Sumner & Keller185)

§87. The Technique of Self-Maintenance.(Sumner & Keller 185)

The three achievements chosen as typicalof maintenance-adjustments will be

81:2.3 The first four great advances inhuman civilization were:

the utilization of fire. 1. The taming of fire.1

the domestication of animals, 2. The domestication of animals.

and the enslavement of men (S&K 185). 3. The enslavement of captives.

[See 69:6.1.] 4. Private property.

XIX: ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE(Sumner & Keller 629)

§180. “Natural” Law. (Sumner & Keller653)

81:2.8 While fire, the first greatdiscovery, eventually unlocked the doorsof the scientific world, it was of littlevalue in this regard to primitive man. Herefused to recognize natural causes asexplanations for commonplace pheno-mena.

How did man acquire fire? 81:2.9 When asked where fire camefrom,

[See 63:2.4-7.] the simple story of Andon and the flintwas soon replaced by

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Prometheus stole it from heaven (S&K654).

the legend of how some Prometheus stoleit from heaven.

This tendency to seek a supernaturalagency for all phenomena not explicablewith the aid of present or accumulatedexperience, under the tests of realitycurrent in ordinary life,

The ancients sought a supernaturalexplanation for all natural phenomena notwithin the range of their personal com-prehension;

is represented by copious survivalsamong more sophisticated peoples (S&K654).

and many moderns continue to do this.

The de-personalization of what has beenlong been personalized has demanded atedious process of mental discipline anddevelopment (S&K 655).

The depersonalization of so-called naturalphenomena has required ages,

and it is not yet completed.

This is the way we have got our science: But the frank, honest, and fearless searchfor true causes gave birth to modernscience:

we have corrected astrology intoastronomy, alchemy into chemistry,magic into medicine (S&K 656).

It turned astrology into astronomy,alchemy into chemistry, and magic intomedicine.


§97. Animal Services. (Sumner & Keller 211)

81:2.10 In the premachine age the onlyway in which man could accomplish workwithout doing it himself was to use ananimal.

Man appropriates, in the domesticatedanimal, a sort of living tool or weaponwhich, within limits, can be shaped to hishand as are other implements.

Domestication of animals placed in hishands living tools,

the intelligent use of which prepared theway for both agriculture and transport-ation.

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There are certain works of man whoseaccomplishment is dependent upon hisdisposal over animal forces muchsurpassing his own; the highestdevelopment of the nomadic stage isimpossible in the absence of the horse, forwithout him the widely grazing herdscannot be held together and supervised(S&K 211).

And without these animals man could nothave risen from his primitive estate to thelevels of subsequent civilization.

§95. Domestication. (Sumner & Keller 207)

Almost all the valuable domestic animalswe have—and the same is true, for thesame reasons, of the plants—go back tothe regions of early civilization, thetemperate river-regions of Eurasia (S&K208).

81:2.11 Most of the animals best suitedto domestication were found in Asia,especially in the central to southwestregions.

This was one reason why civilizationprogressed faster in that locality than inother parts of the world.

Many of these animals had been twicebefore domesticated, and in the Anditeage they were retamed once again.

[See 69:7.4.] But the dog had remained with thehunters ever since being adopted by theblue man long, long before.


All the available evidence indicatesthat the horse was first tamed in somepart of the Asiatic steppe. The morelowland portion of this steppe runs fromGalicia intermittently to South Russia,and thence continuously across RussianTurkestan with a narrowed eastwardextension of varying relief reaching rightaway to the Sea of Okhotsk (P&F3 38).

81:2.12 The Andites of Turkestan werethe first peoples to extensivelydomesticate the horse,

and this is another reason why theirculture was for so long predominant.

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By 5000 B.C. the Mesopotamian,Turkestan, and Chinese farmers hadbegun the raising of sheep, goats, cows,camels, horses, fowls, and elephants.

So far we have been considering thedomestication of animals used for food,whether as flesh food or as supplyingmilk; another use was made of wildanimals at an early stage by convertingthem into beasts of burden. In the OldWorld the chief beasts employed for thispurpose are the ass, the camel, and thehorse; the ox has been used to draw theplough and the wagon, but this wasprobably a somewhat later development.

They employed as beasts of burden theox, camel, horse,

The Yak serves as a beast of burden inTibet, and in that country sheep are usedto carry loads of borax to the plains below(P&F3 36-37).

and yak.


§97. Animal Services. (Sumner & Keller 211)

“Over most of the country of China thereare no roads, and man is the pack-animal. Man was himself at one time the beast of

burden.

For instance, the city of Siang-tan, thirtymiles above Changsha, there used to livea hundred thousand carrying coolies.They were wont to transport goods fromCanton to Hankow overland throughChangsha...” (S&K 213).

One ruler of the blue race once had onehundred thousand men in his colony ofburden bearers.

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II: MODIFICATION OF THE MAN-LAND RATIO (Sumner & Keller 45)

§31.* The Agricultural Stage. (Sumner &Keller 58)

Slavery and private property in land aretwo important adjustments thataccompany agriculture; and there areother scarcely less imposing ones (S&K58).

81:2.13 The institutions of slavery andprivate ownership of land came withagriculture.

X: APPROPRIATION OF ENERGIES:MEN (Sumner & Keller 221)

§100. Enslavement. (Sumner & Keller 221)

When human energies had beenappropriated, ... the more protracted andarduous work could be done withoutsacrificing the leisure, and yet the loftierstandard [of living] could be reached(S&K 223).

Slavery raised the master’s standard ofliving and provided more leisure forsocial culture.

81:2.14 The savage is a slave to nature,but scientific civilization is slowlyconferring increasing liberty on mankind.Through animals, fire, wind, water,electricity, and other undiscoveredsources of energy, man has liberated, andwill continue to liberate, himself from thenecessity for unremitting toil. Regardlessof the transient trouble produced by theprolific invention of machinery, theultimate benefits to be derived from suchmechanical inventions are inestimable.Civilization can never flourish, much lessbe established, until man has leisure tothink, to plan, to imagine new and betterways of doing things.

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II: THE GREATER POWERS OFNEOLITHIC MAN: THE BENEFITS OFTOOLS, COMMUNICATION, ANDSOCIAL ORGANIZATION (Marshall15)

THE IROQUOIS AS TOOL MAKERS ANDHARNESSERS OF NATURE (Marshall 18)

Neanderthal man was in theappropriative period of stage of man’sharnessing of nature. In that stage, manmerely took or appropriated what naturesupplied him in the way of shelter and didnothing to improve it.

81:2.15 Man first simply appropriatedhis shelter,

He sought shelter under bushes and incaves.

lived under ledges or dwelt in caves.

In the adaptive stage of his progress manadapts things furnished by nature, ormodifies them, or works them over intobetter shape for his use. When Neander-thal man piled a heap of stones at themouth of his cave to keep wild animalsout, he was modifying nature ... [TheIroquois] took bark and skins and polesand fashioned them into dwelling-places.

Next he adapted such natural materials aswood and stone to the creation of familyhuts.

Thousands of years after the beginning ofneolithic culture, man is found in thecreative period ... He makes or createsnew fibres and substances—fibres andsubstances not found in nature (M 21).

Lastly he entered the creative stage ofhome building,

We adapt with stones and lumber but wehave created new substances in bricks,mortar, plaster, glass, and steel (M 21).

learned to manufacture brick and otherbuilding materials.

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II: THE FERTILE CRESCENT ANDTHE NILE (Peake & Fleure3 14)

The inhabitants of the mountains,where the forest had appeared longbefore, most probably built their housesof wood, and this would have been moreeasily accomplished in the pine area thanin the oak forest (P&F3 22).

81:2.16 The peoples of the Turkestanhighlands were the first of the moremodern races to build their homes ofwood,

[The first wooden buildings] could havebeen made in several ways, but we willdescribe the simplest, because it hassurvived with little change in the log hutof the north-west of America ... (P&F322).

houses not at all unlike the early logcabins of the American pioneer settlers.

Away from the forest, on the alluvialflats by the riverside, mud was the chiefraw material of the builder ... After atime, ... men took to making rectangularblocks [of mud] and leaving them to dryin the sun before carrying them to thebuilding; thus were invented the firstbricks (P&F3 24).

Throughout the plains human dwellingswere made of brick;

[[The people of Anau] built for themselvesrectangular houses of sun-dried bricks, but they hadnot yet learnt to burn their bricks in a kiln (P&F3116).]

later on, of burned bricks.

A third type of house ... grew up bythe side of rivers where there was aplentiful supply of willows, poplars, orsimilar trees.

81:2.17 The older river races madetheir huts by

This type of building is known as wattleand daub. A number of light poles was setin the ground about two feet or less apart,with their thin ends uppermost; they wereusually set in a ring.

setting tall poles in the ground in a circle;

the tops were then brought together,making the skeleton frame for the hut,

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Thinner branches were then intertwinedround these in horizontal layers as inmaking a hamper or basket.

which was interlaced with transversereeds, the whole creation resembling ahuge inverted basket.

When the walls had reached a sufficientheight, the thin ends of the poles weredrawn and tied together, and the wattle-work continued until the domed roof wascovered in. The whole outer surface wasthen smeared with wet clay, which wasleft to dry in the sun (P&F3 26).

This structure could then be daubed overwith clay and, after drying in the sun,

would make a very serviceable weather-proof habitation.

Those who lived in wattled huts soon sawthat they could make smaller objects bythe same method, and so baskets weremade; it is just possible that the order wasreversed and it was basket-makers whofirst thought of making wattled huts(P&F3 28).

81:2.18 It was from these early hutsthat the subsequent idea of all sorts ofbasket weaving independently originated.

It has been suggested that the idea ofpottery arose from the practice ofsmearing baskets with clay to make themhold water and to withstand the effects offire. It seems more likely that the idea ofpottery came from the wattled hut, as probably did that of basketry,

Among one group the idea of makingpottery arose from observing the effectsof smearing these pole frameworks withmoist clay.

but from one that had been accidentallyburned. The baked clay from the ruinswould be a vivid object-lesson in theproperties of this material, and might welllead the way to the making of pots andbricks (P&F3 28).

The practice of hardening pottery bybaking was discovered when one of theseclay-covered primitive huts accidentallyburned.

The arts of olden days were many timesderived from the accidental occurrencesattendant upon the daily life of earlypeoples.

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At least, this was almost wholly true ofthe evolutionary progress of mankind upto the coming of Adam.

81:2.19 While pottery had been firstintroduced by the staff of the Prince aboutone-half million years ago, the making ofclay vessels had practically ceased forover one hundred and fifty thousandyears. Only the gulf coast pre-SumerianNodites continued to make clay vessels.The art of pottery making was revivedduring Adam’s time.

XIII: CHRONOLOGICAL SURVEY(Peake & Fleure5 145)

It was about 2600 B.C., or perhaps atrifle earlier, so we believe that the menof the Northern Steppe pushed outwardsin every direction. It was, perhaps, due totheir raids, or it may have been to thedrought that the ultimate cause of both,that the people of Anau abandoned thevillage on their North Kurgan. It is to thisdate, or to the few centuries that follow it,that we attribute the spread of the potter’sart, with the technique of painted wares,

The dissemination of this art wassimultaneous with the extension of thedesert areas of Africa, Arabia, and centralAsia,

and it spread in successive waves ofimproving technique from Mesopotamia

to Sind and the Punjab in India and tovarious places in China, the most easterlyof which is almost within sight of thePacific Ocean (P&F5 147).

out over the Eastern Hemisphere.

81:2.20 These civilizations of theAndite age cannot always be traced by thestages of their pottery or other arts. Thesmooth course of human evolution wastremendously complicated by the regimesof both Dalamatia and Eden.

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It often occurs that the later vases andimplements are inferior to the earlierproducts of the purer Andite peoples.

3. CITIES, MANUFACTURE,AND COMMERCE

[Compare 79:1.3.] 81:3.1 The climatic destruction of therich, open grassland hunting and grazinggrounds of Turkestan, beginning about12,000 B.C., compelled the men of thoseregions to resort to new forms of industryand crude manufacturing.

Some turned to the cultivation ofdomesticated flocks, others becameagriculturists or collectors of water-bornefood,

[See 79:1.4.] but the higher type of Andite intellectschose to engage in trade and manufacture.

[Subsequently group specialization developed;

whole families and clans dedicated themselves

to certain sorts of labor (69:3.9).]

It even became the custom for entiretribes to dedicate themselves to thedevelopment of a single industry.

[Compare 79:1.3.] From the valley of the Nile to the HinduKush and from the Ganges to the YellowRiver, the chief business of the superiortribes became the cultivation of the soil,with commerce as a side line.

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PREFACE (Peake & Fleure3 iii)

This group of inventions [agriculture,stone-grinding, metallurgy, house-building, pottery, brick-making] gave mennew links to the soil and led to the rise ofpeasant communities.... This ... gave newmotives for barter and led to thedevelopment of trade (P&F3 iii). 81:3.2 The increase in trade and in the

manufacture of raw materials into variousarticles of commerce was directly instru-mental in producing those early andsemipeaceful communities which were soinfluential in spreading the culture andthe arts of civilization.

VI: LABOR: FURTHER SPECIALIZ-ATION: COÖPERATION (Sumner &Keller 141)

§79. Exchanges in General. (Sumner &Keller 159)

Before the era of extensive world trade,social communities were tribal—expanded family groups.

Exogamy and slavery, as well as trade,have assisted in the transmission ofculture.

Trade brought into fellowship differentsorts of human beings,

By all these means exchanges are effectedbetween human societies and there isbrought to pass what has been called a“cross-fertilization of culture” (S&K161).

thus contributing to a more speedycross-fertilization of culture.

[See 79:1.4.] 81:3.3 About twelve thousand yearsago the era of the independent cities wasdawning.

And these primitive trading andmanufacturing cities were always sur-rounded by zones of agriculture and cattleraising.

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VIII: ON THE EDGE OF THE STEPPES(Peake & Fleure3 110)

While it is true that industry waspromoted by the elevation of thestandards of living, you should have nomisconception regarding the refinementsof early urban life.

Primitive man is not usually a cleanlyanimal, and his huts, used mainly to sleepin, were seldom if ever cleaned out, and ifto the ordinary rubbish and the remains ofhis meals we add the mud brought in onhis feet from his fields, we can wellbelieve that the mound would grow at agreat pace.

The early races were not overly neat andclean,

At one site, the walled city of Anau,abandoned during the nineteenth century,Pumpelly calculated that the level hadrisen at the rate of 2 ft. 3 in. a centuryduring the last four hundred years, whileduring the previous nine centuries, whenthe people had, perhaps, been still lessclean, the rate was more than 2 ft. 6 in. Instill earlier times we can well believe thatthe accumulation during each century wasgreater still (P&F3 112).

and the average primitive community rosefrom one to two feet every twenty-fiveyears as the result of the mereaccumulation of dirt and trash.

Villages in early days often consistedof mud huts or huts built of sun-driedbricks ... Such huts were not calculated tolast long and must have been rebuilt atfrequent intervals, and each new hutwould have been built on the ruins of itspredecessor. Thus by degrees the level ofthe village rose above the surroundingplain, as may be seen in the Nile Delta atthe present day (P&F3 111-12).

Certain of these olden cities also roseabove the surrounding ground veryquickly because their unbaked mud hutswere short-lived, and it was the custom tobuild new dwellings directly on top of theruins of the old.

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81:3.4 The widespread use of metalswas a feature of this era of the earlyindustrial and trading cities.

IV: OUR ANCESTORS ARRIVE INSCANDINAVIA (Osborn 103)

COPPER used at Anau, Turkestan 4000 B.C. (O106)

You have already found a bronze culturein Turkestan dating before 9000 B.C.,

[See Table VII. Chronology of west Asiatic,Egyptian, Cretan, European and Scandinaviancultures (O 106-07).]

and the Andites early learned to work iniron, gold, and copper, as well.

But conditions were very different awayfrom the more advanced centers ofcivilization.

[T]he old divisions of the prehistory ofEurope into the ‘Old Stone Age,’ ‘NewStone Age,’ ‘Age of Copper,’ ‘Age ofBronze,’ and ‘Age of Iron,’ no longersuffice. They are not only too broad, butthey are too indefinite, There were no distinct periods, such as

the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages;

since it is well known that these culturesoverlapped, so that the Old Stone Age ofone region corresponds with the NewStone Age of another, and with even theBronze Age of a third (O 108-09).

all three existed at the same time indifferent localities.

I: THE DISCOVERY OF METAL (Peake& Fleure4 7)

There seems little doubt that gold wasthe first metal to attract interest; theattraction may have developed indepen-dently among many peoples at manyplaces.

81:3.5 Gold was the first metal to besought by man;

it was easy to work

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Elliot Smith suggests a start by thefinding of small nugget to serve as a beadin place of an older-fashioned shell orstone in a necklace (P&F4 8).

and, at first, was used only as anornament.

However attractive gold might be, itssoftness and its rarity precluded at firstthe possibility of its working a revolutionin everyday life....

It was otherwise with copper. Thismetal is hard enough to be used asmaterial for certain tools, and these, bytheir fineness, made possible moredelicate work than could well be executedby stone or bone.

Copper was next employed

The hardness of ground stone axes,however, led to their retention for manypurposes until the alloying of copper withtin to secure hard bronze was mastered(P&F4 8-10).

but not extensively until it was admixedwith tin to make the harder bronze.

III: FIRE AND THE METALS (Marshall59)

MAN’S CONQUEST OF THE METALS(Marshall 69)

As time went on, certain peoples wholived where there were both copper andtin made the discovery, very likely byaccident, that when these metals weremelted together in a fire, the result was anew metal, bronze, which was for manypurposes very much better than either thecopper or the tin (M 71).

The discovery of mixing copper and tin tomake bronze was made by one of theAdamsonites of Turkestan whose high-land copper mine happened to be locatedalongside a tin deposit.

81:3.6 With the appearance of crudemanufacture and beginning industry,commerce quickly became the mostpotent influence in the spread of culturalcivilization. The opening up of the tradechannels by land and by sea greatlyfacilitated travel and the mixing ofcultures as well as the blending ofcivilizations.

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Of the horse we have no positiveevidence much before 2000 B.C., but thenwe know little of the life on the steppesduring the earlier centuries. The generalinference is that all the animals in the OldWorld were tamed before 5000 B.C.

(P&F3 39).By 5000 B.C. the horse was in generaluse throughout civilized and semi-civilized lands.

I: LIFE ON THE STEPPES (Peake &Fleure5 7)

Herodotus tells us that in his day some ofthe Scythians still lived in wagons; thesethe poet Aeschylus describes as ‘loftyhouses of wicker-work, on well-wheeledchariots’. The Wei Tartars, who madethemselves masters of the northern part ofthe Chinese Empire in the third century ofour era, seem to have lived in similarlycovered wagons ... (P&F5 16).

These later races not only had thedomesticated horse but also various sortsof wagons and chariots.

Ages before, the wheel had been used, butnow vehicles so equipped becameuniversally employed both in commerceand war.

81:3.7 The traveling trader and theroving explorer did more to advancehistoric civilization than all otherinfluences combined. Military conquests,colonization, and missionary enterprisesfostered by the later religions were alsofactors in the spread of culture; but thesewere all secondary to the tradingrelations, which were ever accelerated bythe rapidly developing arts and sciencesof industry.

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81:3.8 Infusion of the Adamic stockinto the human races not only quickenedthe pace of civilization, but it also greatlystimulated their proclivities towardadventure and exploration to the end thatmost of Eurasia and northern Africa waspresently occupied by the rapidlymultiplying mixed descendants of theAndites.

4. THE MIXED RACES

81:4.1 As contact is made with thedawn of historic times, all of Eurasia,northern Africa, and the Pacific Islands isoverspread with the composite races ofmankind. And these races of today haveresulted from a blending and reblendingof the five basic human stocks of Urantia.

81:4.2 Each of the Urantia races wasidentified by certain distinguishingphysical characteristics. The Adamitesand Nodites were long-headed; theAndonites were broad-headed. TheSangik races were medium-headed, withthe yellow and blue men tending tobroad-headedness. The blue races, whenmixed with the Andonite stock, weredecidedly broad-headed. The secondarySangiks were medium- to long-headed.

81:4.3 Although these skull dimensionsare serviceable in deciphering racialorigins, the skeleton as a whole is farmore dependable. In the earlydevelopment of the Urantia races therewere originally five distinct types ofskeletal structure:

1. Andonic, Urantia aborigines.

2. Primary Sangik, red, yellow, andblue.

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3. Secondary Sangik, orange, green,and indigo.

4. Nodites, descendants of theDalamatians.

5. Adamites, the violet race.

81:4.4 As these five great racial groupsextensively intermingled, continualmixture tended to obscure the Andonitetype by Sangik hereditary dominance.The Lapps and the Eskimos are blends ofAndonite and Sangik-blue races. Theirskeletal structures come the nearest topreserving the aboriginal Andonic type.But the Adamites and the Nodites havebecome so admixed with the other racesthat they can be detected only as ageneralized Caucasoid order.

81:4.5 In general, therefore, as thehuman remains of the last twentythousand years are unearthed, it will beimpossible clearly to distinguish the fiveoriginal types. Study of such skeletalstructures will disclose that mankind isnow divided into approximately threeclasses:

81:4.6 1. The Caucasoid—the Anditeblend of the Nodite and Adamic stocks,further modified by primary and (some)secondary Sangik admixture and byconsiderable Andonic crossing. TheOccidental white races, together withsome Indian and Turanian peoples, areincluded in this group. The unifyingfactor in this division is the greater orlesser proportion of Andite inheritance.

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81:4.7 2. The Mongoloid—the primarySangik type, including the original red,yellow, and blue races. The Chinese andAmerinds belong to this group. In Europethe Mongoloid type has been modified bysecondary Sangik and Andonic mixture;still more by Andite infusion. TheMalayan and other Indonesian peoples areincluded in this classification, thoughthey contain a high percentage ofsecondary Sangik blood.

81:4.8 3. The Negroid—the secondarySangik type, which originally includedthe orange, green, and indigo races. Thisis the type best illustrated by the Negro,and it will be found through Africa, India,and Indonesia wherever the secondarySangik races located.

81:4.9 In North China there is a certainblending of Caucasoid and Mongoloidtypes; in the Levant the Caucasoid andNegroid have intermingled; in India, as inSouth America, all three types arerepresented. And the skeletal character-istics of the three surviving types stillpersist and help to identify the laterancestry of present-day human races.

5. CULTURAL SOCIETY

81:5.1 Biologic evolution and culturalcivilization are not necessarily correlated;organic evolution in any age may proceedunhindered in the very midst of culturaldecadence. But when lengthy periods ofhuman history are surveyed, it will beobserved that eventually evolution andculture become related as cause andeffect.

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Evolution may advance in the absence ofculture, but cultural civilization does notflourish without an adequate backgroundof antecedent racial progression. Adamand Eve introduced no art of civilizationforeign to the progress of human society,but the Adamic blood did augment theinherent ability of the races and didaccelerate the pace of economicdevelopment and industrial progression.Adam’s bestowal improved the brainpower of the races, thereby greatlyhastening the processes of naturalevolution.

LIX: PLEASURE (Sumner & Keller2059)

§439. The Strain after Luxury. (Sumner &Keller 2090)

81:5.2 Through agriculture, animaldomestication, and improved architecture,

[T]he advance of civilization allows anincreasing amount of energy to beexpended in self-gratification; in fact, aconsiderable portion of the race, havingbeen emancipated by on-sweeping culturefrom the mere struggle for existence andbeing safe enough as regards the vital andprimordial needs,

mankind gradually escaped the worst ofthe incessant struggle to live

has his eye fixed upon self-gratificationalmost alone (S&K 2090-91).

and began to cast about to find wherewithto sweeten the process of living;

It is seeking a higher standard of living,not mere existence and self-perpetuation(S&K 2091).

and this was the beginning of the strivingfor higher and ever higher standards ofmaterial comfort.

Through manufacture and industry man isgradually augmenting the pleasurecontent of mortal life.

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I: STARTING-POINTS (Sumner &Keller 3)

§7. Drawbacks to Association. (Sumner &Keller 12)

It is clarifying to ask one’s self whethersociety is a great club, enjoying privilegesand advantages by nature,

81:5.3 But cultural society is no greatand beneficent club of inherited privilege

with free membership for everybody; into which all men are born with freemembership

and entire equality.

or whether it is a gild of workers, Rather is it an exalted and ever-advancingguild of earth workers,

admitting to its ranks only the nobility ofthose toilers who strive to make the worlda better place in which their children andtheir children’s children may live andadvance in subsequent ages.

with high admission fees and strict rulesof general welfare,

And this guild of civilization exactscostly admission fees, imposes strict andrigorous disciplines,

which imposes heavy penalties ondissenters,

visits heavy penalties on all dissentersand nonconformists,

and confers no privileges except a costlyinsurance against certain massive ills(S&K 12).

while it confers few personal licenses orprivileges except those of enhancedsecurity against common dangers andracial perils.

Societal bonds were forced upon lawlessmen by the necessities of the struggle forexistence; association was a species ofinsurance which one could not afford tobe without.

81:5.4 Social association is a form ofsurvival insurance which human beingshave learned is profitable;

therefore are most individuals willing to

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It was not, however, conferred on thebeneficiary without cost; the premiums ofthe policy were the sacrifices made (S&K14).

pay those premiums of self-sacrifice andpersonal-liberty curtailment which societyexacts from its members in return for thisenhanced group protection.

In short, the present-day socialmechanism is a trial-and-error insuranceplan designed to afford some degree ofassurance and protection against a returnto the terrible and antisocial conditionswhich characterized the early experiencesof the human race.

81:5.5 Society thus becomes a co-operative scheme for securing civilfreedom through institutions, economicfreedom through capital and invention,social liberty through culture, andfreedom from violence through policeregulation.

XVIII: CLASSES AND RIGHTS(Sumner & Keller 561)

§169. Rights and Might. (Sumner & Keller591)

[See 81:6.15, below.] 81:5.6 Might does not make right,

[contd] It takes force to establish anysuch [right] and force to maintain it.Behind every right lies might (S&K 591).

but it does enforce the commonlyrecognized rights of each succeedinggeneration.

§168. Rights. (Sumner & Keller 587)

[contd] The regulation of this class-struggle is the internal function ofgovernment. It reduces to the delimitationof the sphere of rights (S&K 587).

The prime mission of government is thedefinition of the right, the just and fairregulation of class differences,

and the enforcement of equality ofopportunity under the rules of law.2

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Nothing is more important inconnection with rights than this truth thateach right has a duty corresponding to it(S&K 589).

Every human right is associated with asocial duty;

group privilege is an insurance mechan-ism which unfailingly demands the fullpayment of the exacting premiums ofgroup service.

And group rights, as well as those of theindividual, must be protected,

Especially does sex-appetite requirecontrol; for individual passion un-restrained would seek immediate endsirrespective of the effects upon others,and that is not for the welfare of society(S&K 588).

including the regulation of the sexpropensity.

§175. Liberty. (Sumner & Keller 622)

There are two kinds of liberty: theanarchistic, which is the absence of anyrestraint on will and action; and civilliberty. The latter is liberty under law andinstitutions ... (S&K 622).

81:5.7 Liberty subject to groupregulation is the legitimate goal of socialevolution.

It is evident that the first type of liberty isa mere figment, like natural rights andequality (S&K 622).

Liberty without restrictions is the vainand fanciful dream of unstable and flightyhuman minds.

6. THE MAINTENANCE OFCIVILIZATION

81:6.1 While biologic evolution hasproceeded ever upward, much of culturalevolution went out from the Euphratesvalley in waves, which successivelyweakened as time passed until finally thewhole of the pure-line Adamic posterityhad gone forth to enrich the civilizationsof Asia and Europe.

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The races did not fully blend, but theircivilizations did to a considerable extentmix. Culture did slowly spreadthroughout the world. And this civil-ization must be maintained and fostered,for there exist today no new sources ofculture, no Andites to invigorate andstimulate the slow progress of theevolution of civilization.

81:6.2 The civilization which is nowevolving on Urantia grew out of, and ispredicated on, the following factors:

VI: HARNESSING NATURE ANDLIVING TOGETHER WELL (Marshall136)

GENERAL STATEMENTS ABOUT LIVINGTOGETHER WELL (Marshall 136)

At this time five statements may bemade:

81:6.3 1. Natural circumstances.

1. How well we shall live togetherdepends upon the natural resources thatare available (M 141).

The nature and extent of a materialcivilization is in large measure deter-mined by the natural resources available.

Climate, weather, and numerous physicalconditions are factors in the evolution ofculture.


81:6.4 At the opening of the Andite erathere were only two extensive and fertileopen hunting areas in all the world.

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If we think of the descendants ofSolutrean man hunting wild cattle on theEurasiatic steppes as the redskins huntedthe bison on the American prairies, wecan imagine that sometimes they wereable to surround the herd and control itsmovements (P&F3 31).

One was in North America and wasoverspread by the Amerinds; the otherwas to the north of Turkestan and waspartly occupied by an Andonic-yellowrace.

The decisive factors in the evolution of asuperior culture in southwestern Asiawere race and climate. The Andites werea great people, but the crucial factor indetermining the course of their civil-ization was the increasing aridity of Iran,Turkestan, and Sinkiang, which forcedthem to invent and adopt new andadvanced methods of wresting alivelihood from their decreasingly fertilelands.

81:6.5 The configuration of continentsand other land-arrangement situations arevery influential in determining peace orwar. Very few Urantians have ever hadsuch a favorable opportunity for continu-ous and unmolested development as hasbeen enjoyed by the peoples of NorthAmerica—protected on practically allsides by vast oceans.



3. How well we shall live togetherdepends upon the capital goods (tools,machines, materials, etc.) that areavailable (M 141).

81:6.6 2. Capital goods.

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IV: INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION:FACTORS (Sumner & Keller 95)

§53.* Labor. (Sumner & Keller 103)

Culture is never developed underconditions of poverty;

When nature offers man a food-supplywhich requires little labor to adapt it toimmediate use, the effect is to make himlazy and good for nothing; he develops noconsiderable civilization. Yet labor isirksome, and leisure, besides beingagreeable, is an indispensable conditionfor the production of auxiliary capital, orof ornaments, and for the reflection bywhich knowledge grows (S&K 104).

leisure is essential to the progress ofcivilization.

Individual character of moral andspiritual value may be acquired in theabsence of material wealth, but a culturalcivilization is only derived from thoseconditions of material prosperity whichfoster leisure combined with ambition.

81:6.7 During primitive times life onUrantia was a serious and sober business.

[These secondary Sangik peoples found

existence more easy and agreeable in the

southlands, and many of them subsequently

migrated to Africa. The primary Sangik

peoples, the superior races, avoided the

tropics ... (64:7.3).]

And it was to escape this incessantstruggle and interminable toil thatmankind constantly tended to drift towardthe salubrious climate of the tropics.

While these warmer zones of habitationafforded some remission from the intensestruggle for existence,

[Leisure is often, though not always, devoted byprimitive man to pure sloth (S&K 105).]

the races and tribes who thus sought easeseldom utilized their unearned leisure forthe advancement of civilization.

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Social progress has invariably come fromthe thoughts and plans of those races thathave, by their intelligent toil, learned howto wrest a living from the land withlessened effort and shortened days oflabor and thus have been able to enjoy awell-earned and profitable margin ofleisure.



2. How well we shall live togetherdepends upon the scientific knowledgethat is available (M 141).

81:6.8 3. Scientific knowledge.

The material aspects of civilization mustalways await the accumulation ofscientific data.

IV: POWER AND THE MACHINE ASPHASES OF MAN’S HARNESSING OFNATURE (Marshall 85)

MAN’S CONQUEST OF POWER DEVICES(Marshall 86)

It was a long time after the discovery of

Man began to harness powers outside himas long ago as the time of neolithic man.The bow and arrow is an illustration ofthis, for the bow is nothing but a device topropel an arrow by harnessing the springyforce of wood.

the bow and arrow

At this same time, too, he began to usedomesticated animals as beasts of burden(M 86).

and the utilization of animals for powerpurposes

Presently man began to harness thewinds and the waters (M 87).

before man learned how to harness windand water,

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Watt is known as the father of thesteam engine although, as is always trueof inventors, he really built upon the workof the inventors who had gone before him(M 95).

to be followed by the employment ofsteam

The next step (taken much later) wasto make the electric motor (M 97). and electricity.

But slowly the tools of civilizationimproved. Weaving, pottery, the dom-estication of animals, and metal-workingwere followed by an age of writing andprinting.

81:6.9 Knowledge is power. Inventionalways precedes the acceleration ofcultural development on a world-widescale. Science and invention benefitedmost of all from the printing press, andthe interaction of all these cultural andinventive activities has enormouslyaccelerated the rate of culturaladvancement.

V: SCIENCE, THE CREATIVE STAGEOF MAN’S HARNESSING OFNATURE (Marshall 110)

MAN ON THE HIGHWAY OF PROGRESS(Marshall 123)

A summary statement of whatscience does.— ...

3. One of the most important thingsabout science is the frame of mind, themental attitude into which it puts us.... Aperson with the scientific habit of mindwill be an inquiring, careful, measuring,testing, generalizing person who willfollow facts rather than opinions.

81:6.10 Science teaches man to speakthe new language of mathematics andtrains his thoughts along lines of exactingprecision.

And science also stabilizes philosophythrough the elimination of error, while itpurifies religion by

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His mind will be freed from such fearsand superstitions as men once had, for hewill see the world in terms of law and notin terms of magic (M 132).

the destruction of superstition.



4. How well we shall live togetherdepends upon the human resources thatare available (M 141).

81:6.11 4. Human resources.

Man power is indispensable to the spreadof civilization. All things equal, anumerous people will dominate thecivilization of a smaller race. Hencefailure to increase in numbers up to acertain point prevents the full realizationof national destiny, but there comes apoint in population increase where furthergrowth is suicidal. Multiplication ofnumbers beyond the optimum of thenormal man-land ratio means either alowering of the standards of living or animmediate expansion of territorialboundaries by peaceful penetration or bymilitary conquest, forcible occupation.

81:6.12 You are sometimes shocked atthe ravages of war, but you shouldrecognize the necessity for producinglarge numbers of mortals so as to affordample opportunity for social and moraldevelopment; with such planetary fertilitythere soon occurs the serious problem ofoverpopulation. Most of the inhabitedworlds are small. Urantia is average,perhaps a trifle undersized. The optimumstabilization of national populationenhances culture and prevents war. And itis a wise nation which knows when tocease growing.

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81:6.13 But the continent richest innatural deposits and the most advancedmechanical equipment will make littleprogress if the intelligence of its people ison the decline. Knowledge can be had byeducation, but wisdom, which is indis-pensable to true culture, can be securedonly through experience and by men andwomen who are innately intelligent. Sucha people are able to learn from exper-ience; they may become truly wise.



81:6.14 5. Effectiveness of materialresources.

5. How well we shall live togetherdepends upon whether we use our naturalresources, our capital goods, ourscientific knowledge, and our humanresources for better living or for evilliving (M 141).

Much depends on the wisdom displayedin the utilization of natural resources,scientific knowledge, capital goods, andhuman potentials.

VI: LABOR: FURTHER SPECIAL-IZATION: COÖPERATION (Sumner &Keller 141)

§73. The Organizing Function of Might.(Sumner & Keller 147)

[contd] The earliest and mostelemental forms of organization forsocietal self-maintenance go back,whatever strand be followed up, to force.

The chief factor in early civilization wasthe force exerted by wise social masters;

36


All members of early society dischargedfunctions that they did not like todischarge under the compulsion of life-conditions as metamorphosed into theauthority of the mores, of law, or of someperson or group possessed of superiorpower (S&K 147).

primitive man had civilization literallythrust upon him by his superior con-temporaries.

Well-organized and superior minoritieshave largely ruled this world.

It is a popular saying that might does notmake right, and it is true;

81:6.15 Might does not make right,

but might makes what is, and has been, inall history (S&K 148).

but might does make what is and what hasbeen in history.

Only recently has Urantia reached thatpoint where society is willing to debatethe ethics of might and right.

XI: COMMUNICATION AND LIVINGTOGETHER WELL (Marshall 268)

[INTRODUCTION] (Marshall 268)

The foregoing survey of how man hasmultiplied his powers through commu-nication may well culminate in additionsto this list, these additions constitutingthe subject matter of the present chapter.

6. How well we shall live togetherdepends upon the effectiveness of ourlanguage devices (M 269).

81:6.16 6. Effectiveness of language.

The spread of civilization must wait uponlanguage. Live and growing languagesinsure the expansion of civilized thinkingand planning. During the early agesimportant advances were made in lan-guage. Today, there is great need forfurther linguistic development to facil-itate the expression of evolving thought.

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§18.* Folkways and Mores. (Sumner &Keller 31)

81:6.17 Language evolved out of groupassociations,

Each group developed its own languagewhich then held that group together andsundered it from others (S&K IV 4).

each local group developing its ownsystem of word exchange.

VII: SIGN LANGUAGE, SPOKENLANGUAGE, WRITTEN LANGUAGE,PRINTED LANGUAGE: MULTI-PLIERS OF MAN’S POWERS (Marshall165)

SPOKEN LANGUAGE A MULTIPLIER OFMAN’S POWERS (Marshall 166)

Language grew up through

[Primitive man] made much use of a formof communication called gesture language(M 166).

gestures, signs,

Students of the subject argue that man,starting with such good speakingequipment, developed his spokenlanguage in some or all of the followingways:

One way is through exclamatory cries(M 168).

cries,

Then, too, it is argued that manpicked up words in another way. He madeimitations of sounds he heard, and theseimitated sounds came to be words (M169).

imitative sounds,

For one thing, every language iscontinually adding new words.Sometimes these new words come insimply as changes in intonation (M 169). intonation, and accent

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MULTIPLICATION OF POWERS THROUGHWRITING (Marshall 172)

Once people had learned to use soundpictures (phonograms), they were wellstarted toward an alphabet (M 176).

to the vocalization of subsequentalphabets.

SPOKEN LANGUAGE A MULTIPLIER OFMAN’S POWERS (Marshall 166)

Speech knits us together and is atool for thinking. (M 171)

Language is man’s greatest and mostserviceable thinking tool,

but it never flourished until social groupsacquired some leisure.


§18.* Folkways and Mores. (Sumner &Keller 31)

A people who are prosperous and happy,optimistic and progressive, will producemuch slang; it is a case of play; theyamuse themselves with the language(S&K IV 6).

The tendency to play with languagedevelops new words—slang.

There are changes in language which are,“in their inception, inaccuracies ofspeech. They attest the influence of thatimmense numerical majority among thespeakers of English who do not takesufficient pains to speak correctly, butwhose blunders become finally the normof the language” (S&K IV 6).

If the majority adopt the slang, then usageconstitutes it language.

The baby words and individual mis-pronunciations which are taken up by afamily and its friends, but never getfurther, show us how dialects grow (S&KIV 6).

The origin of dialects is illustrated by theindulgence in “baby talk” in a familygroup.

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§26. Numbers and Civilization. (Sumner &Keller 46)

Barriers to free contact are typicallyanti-cultural ... One of the most effectiveof insulators is difference of language(S&K 47).

81:6.18 Language differences have everbeen the great barrier to the extension ofpeace.

The conquest of dialects must precede thespread of a culture throughout a race,over a continent, or to a whole world.


COMMAND OF LANGUAGE AND LIVINGTOGETHER WELL (Marshall 269)

Quite aside from spelling and thealphabet, many persons advocate a“universal” language—one that everyonethroughout the world would learn inaddition to his own.... The main argu-ments advanced for it are these: It wouldhelp to prevent war by making peoplesunderstand one another better;

A universal language promotes peace,

it would save years of study for scientistswho want to understand each other; itwould make commerce easier, andtraveling a greater pleasure; it wouldmake radio a means of transferringinformation from part of the earth toanother instantaneously;

insures culture,

in short, it would help people livetogether better because they would beable to understand one another moreeasily (M 270-71).

and augments happiness.

Even when the tongues of a world arereduced to a few, the mastery of these bythe leading cultural peoples mightilyinfluences the achievement of world-widepeace and prosperity.

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[Compare §79. Exchanges in General. (S&K 159-61).]

81:6.19 While very little progress hasbeen made on Urantia toward developingan international language, much has beenaccomplished by the establishment ofinternational commercial exchange. Andall these international relations should befostered, whether they involve language,trade, art, science, competitive play, orreligion.


7. How well we shall live togetherdepends upon the effectiveness of ourmechanical devices for communicationand trade (M 269).

81:6.20 7. Effectiveness of mechanicaldevices.

[See 81:6.6, above, re capital goods.]

The progress of civilization is directlyrelated to the development and possessionof tools, machines, and channels ofdistribution. Improved tools, ingeniousand efficient machines, determine thesurvival of contending groups in the arenaof advancing civilization.


§32.* Degrees of Density in Population.(Sumner & Keller 60)

81:6.21 In the early days the onlyenergy applied to land cultivation wasman power.

Of course if a million oxen and a millionhorses were introduced into a country likeJapan in a single year, the effect upon themen who were living by muscular laborwould be disastrous on account of thesuddenness and greatness of thedisturbance in organization (S&K 62)..

It was a long struggle to substitute oxenfor men since this threw men out ofemployment.

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Machines cannot be introduced into allthe industries for which they are suitableas soon as they are invented; there is anelement of friction, which is beneficialsince it gives time for readjustment.

Latterly, machines have begun to displacemen,

and every such advance is directlycontributory to the progress of societybecause

The displacement of labor, in this sense,though it may be accompanied with thepain incidental to all readjustment, hasbeen the very thing men have striven forand profited by.... Meanwhile, along withgreater ease in living, the population hassteadily increased (S&K 62).

it liberates man power for theaccomplishment of more valuable tasks.

81:6.22 Science, guided by wisdom,may become man’s great social liberator.A mechanical age can prove disastrousonly to a nation whose intellectual level istoo low to discover those wise methodsand sound techniques for successfullyadjusting to the transition difficultiesarising from the sudden loss of employ-ment by large numbers consequent uponthe too rapid invention of new types oflaborsaving machinery.



8. How well we shall live togetherdepends upon the quality of our torch-bearers (M 269).

81:6.23 8. Character of torchbearers.

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X: PASSING ON THE TORCH(Marshall 243)

WHAT IT MEANS TO PASS ON THE TORCH(Marshall 244)

“We stand on the shoulders of all thegenerations that have gone before us” (M248).

Social inheritance enables man to standon the shoulders of all who have precededhim,

and who have contributed aught to thesum of culture and knowledge.

Our life to-day is more complex thanthat of the Iroquois. There are many morethings to be learned. It is natural,therefore, that we should have not onlytheir ways of passing on the torch, butalso many others.

In this work of passing on the culturaltorch to the next generation,

We still use the family, and story-telling,and play, and talk of elders. In additionwe have schools and churches and booksand theaters and many other devices. Ofall these the family is the greattorchbearer (M 248-49).

the home will ever be the basicinstitution. The play and social life comesnext, with the school last but equallyindispensable in a complex and highlyorganized society.

Far, far back, as the lower forms of lifewere slowly developing, a split, or fork,took place in that development. Onebranch was the road taken by the insects,[which] are almost entirely creatures ofinstinct. They have their whole equipmentfor life when they are born, and they areable to learn little or nothing (M 246).

81:6.24 Insects are born fully educatedand equipped for life—indeed, a verynarrow and purely instinctive existence.

How very different it is with man! A yearis likely to go by before a baby is evenable to walk.... Many more years will goby before he has learned all he needs toknow if he is to live well in this complexworld of ours (M 247).

The human baby is born without aneducation;

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therefore man possesses the power, bycontrolling the educational training of theyounger generation, greatly to modify theevolutionary course of civilization.

81:6.25 The greatest twentieth-centuryinfluences contributing to the furtheranceof civilization and the advancement ofculture are the marked increase in worldtravel and the unparalleled improvementsin methods of communication.


TORCHBEARING AND LIVING TOGETHERWELL (Marshall 278)

Serious problems confront ourschools as torchbearers. [Etc.] (M 278)

But the improvement in education has notkept pace with the expanding socialstructure;

neither has the modern appreciation ofethics developed in correspondence withgrowth along more purely intellectual andscientific lines. And modern civilizationis at a standstill in spiritual developmentand the safeguarding of the homeinstitution.


9. How we shall live togetherdepends upon whether man, thecommunicator, is guided by good ideals(M 269).

81:6.26 9. The racial ideals.

The ideals of one generation carve out thechannels of destiny for immediateposterity. The quality of the socialtorchbearers will determine whethercivilization goes forward or backward.The homes, churches, and schools of onegeneration predetermine the charactertrend of the succeeding generation.

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The moral and spiritual momentum of arace or a nation largely determines thecultural velocity of that civilization.

XV: SOCIAL CONTROL: THENATION AND GOVERNMENT(Marshall 357)

DEMOCRACY, A MULTIPLIER OF MAN’SPOWERS BY DEVELOPING THE INDIVIDUAL(Marshall 367)

81:6.27 Ideals elevate the source of thesocial stream.

How can democracy control herpublic servants? ...

To begin with, citizens mustthemselves have good ideals of publicservice, so that they will not tolerate poorservice. There is an old saying, “A streamwill not rise higher than its source.” Itwould be foolish to expect that citizenservants would have any better idealsthan the citizen masters (M 376).

And no stream will rise any higher thanits source

no matter what technique of pressure ordirectional control may be employed.

The driving power of even the mostmaterial aspects of a cultural civilizationis resident in the least material ofsociety’s achievements. Intelligence maycontrol the mechanism of civilization,wisdom may direct it, but spiritualidealism is the energy which really upliftsand advances human culture from onelevel of attainment to another.

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XVI: SOCIAL ORGANIZATION ANDLIVING TOGETHER WELL (Marshall381)


10. How well we shall live togetherdepends upon whether we make effectiveuse of specialization as a multiplier of ourpowers (M 382-83).

81:6.29 10. Co-ordination ofspecialists.

XII: THE COÖPERATION OFSPECIALISTS (Marshall 295)

SPECIALIZATION, ANOTHER MULTIPLIEROF POWERS (Marshall 296)

Civilization has been enormouslyadvanced by

Then there is the specialization ofworkers, or division of labor, that takesplace within a modern business house.[Etc.] (M 298)

the early division of labor

and by its later corollary of specialization.

Civilization is now dependent on theeffective co-ordination of specialists.

THE COÖPERATION OF SPECIALISTSTHROUGH AUTHORITY AND THROUGHEXCHANGE (Marshall 302)

[contd] Specialists must be knittedtogether. [Etc.] (M 302)

As society expands, some method ofdrawing together the various specialistsmust be found.

SPECIALIZATION, ANOTHER MULTIPLIEROF POWERS (Marshall 296)

One reason why specializationmultiplies our powers is that it increasesour skill and dexterity (M 299).

81:6.30 Social, artistic, technical, andindustrial specialists will continue tomultiply and increase in skill anddexterity.

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And this diversification of ability anddissimilarity of employment willeventually weaken and disintegratehuman society if effective means ofco-ordination and co-operation are notdeveloped. But the intelligence which iscapable of such inventiveness and suchspecialization should be wholly com-petent to devise adequate methods ofcontrol and adjustment for all problemsresulting from the rapid growth ofinvention and the accelerated pace ofcultural expansion.



11. How well we shall live togetherdepends upon the effectiveness of ourplace-finding devices (M 383). 81:6.31 11. Place-finding devices.

XIII: FINDING OUR PLACES ANDPULLING THE LOAD (Marshall 317)


[contd] The last chapter revealed asociety of millions of specialists, eachworking at a single task and yet allcoöperating; all knitted together (M 317).

The next age of social development willbe embodied in a better and moreeffective co-operation and co-ordinationof ever-increasing and expanding special-ization.

But where does any given person fit inthe picture? How is it settled what hisparticular task is to be? (M 317)

And as labor more and more diversifies,some technique for directing individualsto suitable employment must be devised.

Machinery is not the only cause forunemployment among the civilizedpeoples of Urantia. Economic complexityand the steady increase of industrial andprofessional specialism add to theproblems of labor placement.

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81:6.32 It is not enough to train men forwork; in a complex society there mustalso be provided efficient methods ofplace finding.


SPECIALIZATION AND LIVING TOGETHERWELL (Marshall 383)

One way to offset the narrowingeffects of specialization is to have youngpersons remain in school long enough toget a broad education before going out tospecialized tasks (M 384).

Before training citizens in the highlyspecialized techniques of earning a living,they should be trained in one or moremethods of commonplace labor, trades orcallings which could be utilized whenthey were transiently unemployed in theirspecialized work.

No civilization can survive the long-timeharboring of large classes of unemployed.In time, even the best of citizens willbecome distorted and demoralized byaccepting support from the publictreasury. Even private charity becomespernicious when long extended toable-bodied citizens.3

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XII: THE COÖPERATION OFSPECIALISTS (Marshall 295)

THE COÖPERATION OF SPECIALISTSTHROUGH AUTHORITY AND THROUGHEXCHANGE (Marshall 302)

Our individuals knit themselvestogether through exchange.—Thisaccount of a communistic society [given on

pp. 303-06] shows that the specialists of awhole group can be knitted togetherthrough authority. But in the main, suchmethods have not lasted and have notbeen generally thought to make forprogress.

81:6.33 Such a highly specializedsociety will not take kindly to the ancientcommunal and feudal practices of oldenpeoples.

True, many common services can beacceptably and profitably socialized,

Instead of that way, the plan commonlyused to-day is one in which societymerely lays down certain broad, general“rules of the game.” Then it lets itsindividuals take the initiative and knitthem together. They do so by exchangingwith one another; by using “the market”(M 306).

but highly trained and ultraspecializedhuman beings can best be managed bysome technique of intelligent co-operation.

Modernized co-ordination and fraternalregulation will be productive of longer-lived co-operation than will the older andmore primitive methods of communism ordictatorial regulative institutions based onforce.



12. How well we shall live togetherdepends upon developing an under-standingly coöperative spirit (M 383).

81:6.34 12. The willingness toco-operate.

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§7. Drawbacks to Association. (Sumner &Keller 12)

One of the great hindrances to theprogress of human society is the conflictbetween

Men have to be driven to think interms of society and very few come to doso. What they can sense without trouble isthe individual interest, and some cancome to recognize that of the limitedgroup. But the interest of the larger groupspeedily vanishes if confronted with thatof the smaller (S&K 14).

the interests and welfare of the larger,more socialized human groups and of thesmaller, contrary-minded asocial associ-ations of mankind,

not to mention antisocially-minded singleindividuals.

[See 71:3.5.]

81:6.35 No national civilization longendures unless its educational methodsand religious ideals inspire a high type ofintelligent patriotism and nationaldevotion. Without this sort of intelligentpatriotism and cultural solidarity, allnations tend to disintegrate as a result ofprovincial jealousies and local self-interests.

81:6.36 The maintenance of world-widecivilization is dependent on human beingslearning how to live together in peace andfraternity.

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SPECIALIZATION AND LIVING TOGETHERWELL (Marshall 383)

Without effective co-ordination, indus-trial civilization is jeopardized by thedangers of ultraspecialization:

There are evils in specializationwhich must be offset.—Specialization isa multiplier of our powers but it has in itpossibilities of harm.

For one thing, specialization canmean a terrible monotony (M 383). monotony,

For another thing specialization canmean a terrible narrowness (M 383). narrowness,

THE TEAM SPIRIT AND LIVING TOGETHERWELL (Marshall 390)

Distrust and jealousy are marringour coöperation. (M 391)

and the tendency to breed distrust andjealousy.

81:6.37 13. Effective and wiseleadership.

A third cause of distrust is the factthat evils exist in our socialorganization. ...

In other words, there is ahead of usthe task of building up good ideals andgood social control to meet the evils thatare nibbling away our coöperative spirit.We must undertake this task, for howwell we shall live together depends uponour developing an effective coöperativespirit in pulling the load (M 396).

In civilization much, very much, dependson an enthusiastic and effective load-pulling spirit.

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Ten men are of little more value than onein lifting a great load unless they lifttogether—all at the same moment. Andsuch teamwork—social co-operation—isdependent on leadership. The culturalcivilizations of the past and the presenthave been based upon the intelligentco-operation of the citizenry with wiseand progressive leaders; and until manevolves to higher levels, civilization willcontinue to be dependent on wise andvigorous leadership.

81:6.38 High civilizations are born ofthe sagacious correlation of materialwealth, intellectual greatness, moralworth, social cleverness, and cosmicinsight.

81:6.39 14. Social changes.


[See 71:0.2.] Society is not a divine institution; it is aphenomenon of progressive evolution;

and advancing civilization is alwaysdelayed when its leaders are slow in

13. How well we shall live togetherdepends upon whether we make wisechanges in our social organization inorder to meet the new situations in ourcivilization (M 383).

making those changes in the socialorganization which are essential tokeeping pace with the scientificdevelopments of the age.

For all that, things must not be despisedjust because they are old, neither shouldan idea be unconditionally embraced justbecause it is novel and new.

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PLANNING A CHANGING SOCIALORGANIZATION AND LIVING TOGETHERWELL (Marshall 396)

How shall we make satisfactoryprogress? ...

In other words, the first needed thingis this: Let us be open-minded andfearless about changes, asking only that itbe shown that they will result in progress(M 399-400).

81:6.40 Man should be unafraid toexperiment with the mechanisms ofsociety.

In the second place, we should notexpect too rapid change. Those of us whowish changes should learn a lesson fromthe story of human progress.

But always should these adventures incultural adjustment be controlled by thosewho are fully conversant with the historyof social evolution;

and always should these innovators becounseled by the wisdom of those whohave had practical experience in thedomains of contemplated social oreconomic experiment.

No great social or economic changeshould be attempted suddenly.

It is in the nature of the case that customsand laws and institutions changesomewhat slowly. Time is needed for theheat of new ideas and new ideals topenetrate (M 400-01).

Time is essential to all types of humanadjustment—physical, social, oreconomic.

Only moral and spiritual adjustments canbe made on the spur of the moment, andeven these require the passing of time forthe full outworking of their material andsocial repercussions.


14. How well we shall live togetherdepends upon whether we guide oursocial organization by good ideals andaspirations (M 383).

The ideals of the race are the chiefsupport and assurance during the criticaltimes when civilization is in transit fromone level to another.

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81:6.41 15. The prevention oftransitional breakdown.

[Automatically, through trial and failure,adjustment was secured; and that adjustment cameafter a long time to be known as the state (S&K708).]

Society is the offspring of age upon ageof trial and error; it is what survived theselective adjustments and readjustmentsin the successive stages of mankind’sagelong rise from animal to human levelsof planetary status.

PLANNING A CHANGING SOCIALORGANIZATION AND LIVING TOGETHERWELL (Marshall 396)

The heat of new ideals and ideasshould be applied gradually.— ... If onesuddenly pours boiling water into a coldglass ... [a] strain is developed, and if thestrain is severe enough, the glass breaks.There is no need of having such abreak....

We have ahead of us a problem verylike this case of cleaning a drinking glass(M 397).

The great danger to any civilization—atany one moment—is the threat ofbreakdown during the time of transitionfrom the established methods of the pastto those new and better, but untried,procedures of the future.

81:6.42 Leadership is vital to progress.Wisdom, insight, and foresight areindispensable to the endurance of nations.Civilization is never really jeopardizeduntil able leadership begins to vanish.

[Mankind emerged from savagery andbarbarism under the leadership of selectedindividuals whose personal prowess, capacity, orwisdom gave them the right to lead and the powerto compel obedience. Such leaders have alwaysbeen a minute fraction of the whole ... (MadisonGrant, The Passing of the Great Race [1916], p.6).]

And the quantity of such wise leadershiphas never exceeded one per cent of thepopulation.

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81:6.43 And it was by these rungs onthe evolutionary ladder that civilizationclimbed to that place where those mightyinfluences could be initiated which haveculminated in the rapidly expandingculture of the twentieth century. And onlyby adherence to these essentials can manhope to maintain his present-daycivilizations while providing for theircontinued development and certainsurvival.

[See 81:6.9, above.]

81:6.44 This is the gist of the long, longstruggle of the peoples of earth toestablish civilization since the age ofAdam. Present-day culture is the netresult of this strenuous evolution. Beforethe discovery of printing, progress wasrelatively slow since one generation couldnot so rapidly benefit from theachievements of its predecessors. Butnow human society is plunging forwardunder the force of the accumulatedmomentum of all the ages through whichcivilization has struggled.

81:6.45 [Sponsored by an Archangel ofNebadon.]

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1. §88.* The “Taming of Fire.” (Sumner &Keller 187)

2. Sumner & Keller continue:

Rights are not easy to define, either for a government or for a treatise-writer. The conception of rights isthoroughly confused with those of equality and liberty.... If, however, their ultimate reason for existence issought, it becomes evident that whether they do or do not promote equality or liberty, their enforcementmakes for peace, security, and order (S&K 587-88).

3. It might be answered that there is no worse pauperization than charity, and that the morale of millions ofpeople is broken by the necessity of begging aid (H. A. Overstreet, We Move in New Directions [1933], p.43).

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Paper 81 - Development of Modern Civilization, …urantiabooksources.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/081.pdf · THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION ... changes, about 15,000 B.C., civilization