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The 5th Epochal Revelation
-The Urantia Papers
PAPER 69
PRIMITIVE HUMAN INSTITUTIONS
69:0.1
EMOTIONALLY, man transcends his animal ancestors in his
ability to appreciate humor, art, and religion.
Socially, man exhibits his superiority in that he is a
toolmaker, a communicator, and an institution builder.
69:0.2
When human beings long maintain social groups, such
aggregations always result in the creation of certain
activity trends which culminate in institutionalization.
Most of man's institutions have proved to be laborsaving
while at the same time contributing something to the
enhancement of group security.
69:0.3
Civilized man takes great pride in the character,
stability, and continuity of his established
institutions, but all human institutions are merely the
accumulated mores of the past as they have been
conserved by taboos and dignified by religion. Such
legacies become traditions, and traditions ultimately
metamorphose into conventions.
1. BASIC HUMAN INSTITUTIONS
69:1.1
All human institutions minister to some social need,
past or present, notwithstanding that their
overdevelopment unfailingly detracts from the
worth-whileness of the individual in that personality is
overshadowed and initiative is diminished. Man should
control his institutions rather than permit himself to
be dominated by these creations of advancing
civilization.
69:1.2
Human institutions are of three general classes:
69:1.3
1. The
institutions of self-maintenance. These institutions
embrace those practices growing out of food hunger and
its associated instincts of self-preservation. They
include industry, property, war for gain, and all the
regulative machinery of society. Sooner or later the
fear instinct fosters the establishment of these
institutions of survival by means of taboo, convention,
and religious sanction. But fear, ignorance, and
superstition have played a prominent part in the early
origin and subsequent development of all human
institutions.
69:1.4
2. The
institutions of self-perpetuation. These are the
establishments of society growing out of sex hunger,
maternal instinct, and the higher tender emotions of the
races. They embrace the social safeguards of the home
and the school, of family life, education, ethics, and
religion. They include marriage customs, war for
defense, and home building.
69:1.5
3. The
institutions of self-gratification. These are the
practices growing out of vanity proclivities and pride
emotions; and they embrace customs in dress and personal
adornment, social usages, war for glory, dancing,
amusement, games, and other phases of sensual
gratification. But civilization has never evolved
distinctive institutions of self-gratification.
69:1.6
These three groups of social practices are intimately
interrelated and minutely interdependent the one upon
the other. On Urantia they represent a complex
organization which functions as a single social
mechanism.
2. THE DAWN OF INDUSTRY
69:2.1
Primitive industry slowly grew up as an insurance
against the terrors of famine. Early in his existence
man began to draw lessons from some of the animals that,
during a harvest of plenty, store up food against the
days of scarcity.
69:2.2
Before the dawn of early frugality and primitive
industry the lot of the average tribe was one of
destitution and real suffering. Early man had to compete
with the whole animal world for his food.
Competition-gravity ever pulls man down toward the beast
level; poverty is his natural and tyrannical estate.
Wealth is not a natural gift; it results from labor,
knowledge, and organization.
69:2.3
Primitive man was not slow to recognize the advantages
of association. Association led to organization, and the
first result of organization was division of labor, with
its immediate saving of time and materials. These
specializations of labor arose by adaptation to pressure
-- pursuing the paths of lessened resistance. Primitive
savages never did any real work cheerfully or willingly.
With them conformity was due to the coercion of
necessity.
69:2.4
Primitive man disliked hard work, and he would not hurry
unless confronted by grave danger. The time element in
labor, the idea of doing a given task within a certain
time limit, is entirely a modern notion. The ancients
were never rushed. It was the double demands of the
intense struggle for existence and of the ever-advancing
standards of living that drove the naturally inactive
races of early man into avenues of industry.
69:2.5
Labor, the efforts of design, distinguishes man from the
beast, whose exertions are largely instinctive. The
necessity for labor is man's paramount blessing. The
Prince's staff all worked; they did much to ennoble
physical labor on Urantia. Adam was a gardener; the God
of the Hebrews labored -- he was the creator and
upholder of all things. The Hebrews were the first tribe
to put a supreme premium on industry; they were the
first people to decree that "he who does not work shall
not eat." But many of the religions of the world
reverted to the early ideal of idleness. Jupiter was a
reveler, and Buddha became a reflective devotee of
leisure.
69:2.6
The Sangik tribes were fairly industrious when residing
away from the tropics. But there was a long, long
struggle between the lazy devotees of magic and the
apostles of work -- those who exercised foresight.
69:2.7
The first human foresight was directed toward the
preservation of fire, water, and food. But primitive man
was a natural-born gambler; he always wanted to get
something for nothing, and all too often during these
early times the success which accrued from patient
practice was attributed to charms. Magic was slow to
give way before foresight, self-denial, and industry.
3. THE SPECIALIZATION OF LABOR
69:3.1
The divisions of labor in primitive society were
determined first by natural, and then by social,
circumstances. The early order of specialization in
labor was:
69:3.2
1. Specialization
based on sex. Woman's work was derived from the
selective presence of the child; women naturally love
babies more than men do. Thus woman became the routine
worker, while man became the hunter and fighter,
engaging in accentuated periods of work and rest.
69:3.3
All down through the ages the taboos have operated to
keep woman strictly in her own field. Man has most
selfishly chosen the more agreeable work, leaving the
routine drudgery to woman. Man has always been ashamed
to do woman's work, but woman has never shown any
reluctance to doing man's work. But strange to record,
both men and women have always worked together in
building and furnishing the home.
69:3.4
2. Modification
consequent upon age and disease. These differences
determined the next division of labor. The old men and
cripples were early set to work making tools and
weapons. They were later assigned to building irrigation
works.
69:3.5
3.
Differentiation based on religion. The medicine men
were the first human beings to be exempted from physical
toil; they were the pioneer professional class. The
smiths were a small group who competed with the medicine
men as magicians. Their skill in working with metals
made the people afraid of them. The "white smiths" and
the "black smiths" gave origin to the early beliefs in
white and black magic. And this belief later became
involved in the superstition of good and bad ghosts,
good and bad spirits.
69:3.6
Smiths were the first nonreligious group to enjoy
special privileges. They were regarded as neutrals
during war, and this extra leisure led to their
becoming, as a class, the politicians of primitive
society. But through gross abuse of these privileges the
smiths became universally hated, and the medicine men
lost no time in fostering hatred for their competitors.
In this first contest between science and religion,
religion (superstition) won. After being driven out of
the villages, the smiths maintained the first inns,
public lodginghouses, on the outskirts of the
settlements.
69:3.7
4. Master and
slave. The next differentiation of labor grew out of
the relations of the conqueror to the conquered, and
that meant the beginning of human slavery.
69:3.8
5.
Differentiation based on diverse physical and mental
endowments. Further divisions of labor were favored
by the inherent differences in men; all human beings are
not born equal.
69:3.9
The early specialists in industry were the flint flakers
and stonemasons; next came the smiths. Subsequently
group specialization developed; whole families and clans
dedicated themselves to certain sorts of labor. The
origin of one of the earliest castes of priests, apart
from the tribal medicine men, was due to the
superstitious exaltation of a family of expert
swordmakers.
69:3.10
The first group specialists in industry were rock salt
exporters and potters. Women made the plain pottery and
men the fancy. Among some tribes sewing and weaving were
done by women, in others by the men.
69:3.11
The early traders were women; they were employed as
spies, carrying on commerce as a side line. Presently
trade expanded, the women acting as intermediaries --
jobbers. Then came the merchant class, charging a
commission, profit, for their services. Growth of group
barter developed into commerce; and following the
exchange of commodities came the exchange of skilled
labor.
4. THE BEGINNINGS OF TRADE
69:4.1
Just as marriage by contract followed marriage by
capture, so trade by barter followed seizure by raids.
But a long period of piracy intervened between the early
practices of silent barter and the later trade by modern
exchange methods.
69:4.2
The first barter was conducted by armed traders who
would leave their goods on a neutral spot. Women held
the first markets; they were the earliest traders, and
this was because they were the burden bearers; the men
were warriors. Very early the trading counter was
developed, a wall wide enough to prevent the traders
reaching each other with weapons.
69:4.3
A fetish was used to stand guard over the deposits of
goods for silent barter. Such market places were secure
against theft; nothing would be removed except by barter
or purchase; with a fetish on guard the goods were
always safe. The early traders were scrupulously honest
within their own tribes but regarded it as all right to
cheat distant strangers. Even the early Hebrews
recognized a separate code of ethics in their dealings
with the gentiles.
69:4.4
For ages silent barter continued before men would meet,
unarmed, on the sacred market place. These same market
squares became the first places of sanctuary and in some
countries were later known as "cities of refuge." Any
fugitive reaching the market place was safe and secure
against attack.
69:4.5
The first weights were grains of wheat and other
cereals. The first medium of exchange was a fish or a
goat. Later the cow became a unit of barter.
69:4.6
Modern writing originated in the early trade records;
the first literature of man was a trade-promotion
document, a salt advertisement. Many of the earlier wars
were fought over natural deposits, such as flint, salt,
and metals. The first formal tribal treaty concerned the
intertribalizing of a salt deposit. These treaty spots
afforded opportunity for friendly and peaceful
interchange of ideas and the intermingling of various
tribes.
69:4.7
Writing progressed up through the stages of the "message
stick," knotted cords, picture writing, hieroglyphics,
and wampum belts, to the early symbolic alphabets.
Message sending evolved from the primitive smoke signal
up through runners, animal riders, railroads, and
airplanes, as well as telegraph, telephone, and wireless
communication.
69:4.8
New ideas and better methods were carried around the
inhabited world by the ancient traders. Commerce, linked
with adventure, led to exploration and discovery. And
all of these gave birth to transportation. Commerce has
been the great civilizer through promoting the
cross-fertilization of culture.
5. THE BEGINNINGS OF CAPITAL
69:5.1
Capital is labor applied as a renunciation of the
present in favor of the future. Savings represent a form
of maintenance and survival insurance. Food hoarding
developed self-control and created the first problems of
capital and labor. The man who had food, provided he
could protect it from robbers, had a distinct advantage
over the man who had no food.
69:5.2
The early banker was the valorous man of the tribe. He
held the group treasures on deposit, while the entire
clan would defend his hut in event of attack. Thus the
accumulation of individual capital and group wealth
immediately led to military organization. At first such
precautions were designed to defend property against
foreign raiders, but later on it became the custom to
keep the military organization in practice by
inaugurating raids on the property and wealth of
neighboring tribes.
69:5.3
The basic urges which led to the accumulation of capital
were:
69:5.4
1. Hunger --
associated with foresight. Food saving and
preservation meant power and comfort for those who
possessed sufficient
foresight
thus to provide for future needs. Food storage was
adequate insurance against famine and disaster. And the
entire body of primitive mores was really designed to
help man subordinate the present to the future.
69:5.5
2. Love of family
-- desire to provide for their wants. Capital represents
the saving of property in spite of the pressure of the
wants of today in order to insure against the demands of
the future. A part of this future need may have to do
with one's posterity.
69:5.6
3. Vanity --
longing to display one's property accumulations. Extra
clothing was one of the first badges of distinction.
Collection vanity early appealed to the pride of man.
69:5.7
4. Position
-- eagerness to buy social and political prestige. There
early sprang up a commercialized nobility, admission to
which depended on the performance of some special
service to royalty or was granted frankly for the
payment of money.
69:5.8
5. Power --
the craving to be master. Treasure lending was carried
on as a means of enslavement, one hundred per cent a
year being the loan rate of these ancient times. The
moneylenders made themselves kings by creating a
standing army of debtors. Bond servants were among the
earliest form of property to be accumulated, and in
olden days debt slavery extended even to the control of
the body after death.
69:5.9
6. Fear of the
ghosts of the dead -- priest fees for protection.
Men early began to give death presents to the priests
with a view to having their property used to facilitate
their progress through the next life. The priesthoods
thus became very rich; they were chief among ancient
capitalists.
69:5.10
7. Sex urge
-- the desire to buy one or more wives. Man's first form
of trading was woman exchange; it long preceded horse
trading. But never did the barter in sex slaves advance
society; such traffic was and is a racial disgrace, for
at one and the same time it hindered the development of
family life and polluted the biologic fitness of
superior peoples.
69:5.11
8. Numerous forms
of self-gratification. Some sought wealth because it
conferred power; others toiled for property because it
meant ease. Early man (and some later-day ones) tended
to squander his resources on luxury. Intoxicants and
drugs intrigued the primitive races.
69:5.12
As civilization developed, men acquired new incentives
for saving; new wants were rapidly added to the original
food hunger. Poverty became so abhorred that only the
rich were supposed to go direct to heaven when they
died. Property became so highly valued that to give a
pretentious feast would wipe a dishonor from one's name.
69:5.13
Accumulations of wealth early became the badge of social
distinction. Individuals in certain tribes would
accumulate property for years just to create an
impression by burning it up on some holiday or by freely
distributing it to fellow tribesmen. This made them
great men. Even modern peoples revel in the lavish
distribution of Christmas gifts, while rich men endow
great institutions of philanthropy and learning. Man's
technique varies, but his disposition remains quite
unchanged.
69:5.14
But it is only fair to record that many an ancient rich
man distributed much of his fortune because of the fear
of being killed by those who coveted his treasures.
Wealthy men commonly sacrificed scores of slaves to show
disdain for wealth.
69:5.15
Though capital has tended to liberate man, it has
greatly complicated his social and industrial
organization. The abuse of capital by unfair capitalists
does not destroy the fact that it is the basis of modern
industrial society. Through capital and invention the
present generation enjoys a higher degree of freedom
than any that ever preceded it on earth. This is placed
on record as a fact and not in justification of the many
misuses of capital by thoughtless and selfish
custodians.
6. FIRE IN RELATION TO CIVILIZATION
69:6.1
Primitive society with its four divisions -- industrial,
regulative, religious, and military -- rose through the
instrumentality of fire, animals, slaves, and property.
69:6.2
Fire building, by a single bound, forever separated man
from animal; it is the basic human invention, or
discovery. Fire enabled man to stay on the ground at
night as all animals are afraid of it. Fire encouraged
eventide social intercourse; it not only protected
against cold and wild beasts but was also employed as
security against ghosts. It was at first used more for
light than heat; many backward tribes refuse to sleep
unless a flame burns all night.
69:6.3
Fire was a great civilizer, providing man with his first
means of being altruistic without loss by enabling him
to give live coals to a neighbor without depriving
himself. The household fire, which was attended by the
mother or eldest daughter, was the first educator,
requiring watchfulness and dependability. The early home
was not a building but the family gathered about the
fire, the family hearth. When a son founded a new home,
he carried a firebrand from the family hearth.
69:6.4
Though Andon, the discoverer of fire, avoided treating
it as an object of worship, many of his descendants
regarded the flame as a fetish or as a spirit. They
failed to reap the sanitary benefits of fire because
they would not burn refuse. Primitive man feared fire
and always sought to keep it in good humor, hence the
sprinkling of incense. Under no circumstances would the
ancients spit in a fire, nor would they ever pass
between anyone and a burning fire. Even the iron pyrites
and flints used in striking fire were held sacred by
early mankind.
69:6.5
It was a sin to extinguish a flame; if a hut caught
fire, it was allowed to burn. The fires of the temples
and shrines were sacred and were never permitted to go
out except that it was the custom to kindle new flames
annually or after some calamity. Women were selected as
priests because they were custodians of the home fires.
69:6.6
The early myths about how fire came down from the gods
grew out of the observations of fire caused by
lightning. These ideas of supernatural origin led
directly to fire worship, and fire worship led to the
custom of "passing through fire," a practice carried on
up to the times of Moses. And there still persists the
idea of passing through fire after death. The fire myth
was a great bond in early times and still persists in
the symbolism of the Parsees.
69:6.7
Fire led to cooking, and "raw eaters" became a term of
derision. And cooking lessened the expenditure of vital
energy necessary for the digestion of food and so left
early man some strength for social culture, while animal
husbandry, by reducing the effort necessary to secure
food, provided time for social activities.
69:6.8
It should be remembered that fire opened the doors to
metalwork and led to the subsequent discovery of steam
power and the present-day uses of electricity.
7. THE UTILIZATION OF ANIMALS
69:7.1
To start with, the entire animal world was man's enemy;
human beings had to learn to protect themselves from the
beasts. First, man ate the animals but later learned to
domesticate and make them serve him.
69:7.2
The domestication of animals came about accidentally.
The savage would hunt herds much as the American Indians
hunted the bison. By surrounding the herd they could
keep control of the animals, thus being able to kill
them as they were required for food. Later, corrals were
constructed, and entire herds would be captured.
69:7.3
It was easy to tame some animals, but like the elephant,
many of them would not reproduce in captivity. Still
further on it was discovered that certain species of
animals would submit to man's presence, and that they
would reproduce in captivity. The domestication of
animals was thus promoted by selective breeding, an art
which has made great progress since the days of
Dalamatia.
69:7.4
The dog was the first animal to be domesticated, and the
difficult experience of taming it began when a certain
dog, after following a hunter around all day, actually
went home with him. For ages dogs were used for food,
hunting, transportation, and companionship. At first
dogs only howled, but later on they learned to bark. The
dog's keen sense of smell led to the notion it could see
spirits, and thus arose the dog-fetish cults. The
employment of watchdogs made it first possible for the
whole clan to sleep at night. It then became the custom
to employ watchdogs to protect the home against spirits
as well as material enemies. When the dog barked, man or
beast approached, but when the dog howled, spirits were
near. Even now many still believe that a dog's howling
at night betokens death.
69:7.5
When man was a hunter, he was fairly kind to woman, but
after the domestication of animals, coupled with the
Caligastia confusion, many tribes shamefully treated
their women. They treated them altogether too much as
they treated their animals. Man's brutal treatment of
woman constitutes one of the darkest chapters of human
history.
8. SLAVERY AS A FACTOR IN CIVILIZATION
69:8.1
Primitive man never hesitated to enslave his fellows.
Woman was the first slave, a family slave. Pastoral man
enslaved woman as his inferior sex partner. This sort of
sex slavery grew directly out of man's decreased
dependence upon woman.
69:8.2
Not long ago enslavement was the lot of those military
captives who refused to accept the conqueror's religion.
In earlier times captives were either eaten, tortured to
death, set to fighting each other, sacrificed to
spirits, or enslaved. Slavery was a great advancement
over massacre and cannibalism
69:8.3
Enslavement was a forward step in the merciful treatment
of war captives. The ambush of Ai, with the wholesale
slaughter of men, women, and children, only the king
being saved to gratify the conqueror's vanity, is a
faithful picture of the barbaric slaughter practiced by
even supposedly civilized peoples. The raid upon Og, the
king of Bashan, was equally brutal and effective. The
Hebrews "utterly destroyed" their enemies, taking all
their property as spoils. They put all cities under
tribute on pain of the "destruction of all males." But
many of the contemporary tribes, those having less
tribal egotism, had long since begun to practice the
adoption of superior captives.
69:8.4
The hunter, like the American red man, did not enslave.
He either adopted or killed his captives. Slavery was
not prevalent among the pastoral peoples, for they
needed few laborers. In war the herders made a practice
of killing all men captives and taking as slaves only
the women and children. The Mosaic code contained
specific directions for making wives of these women
captives. If not satisfactory, they could be sent away,
but the Hebrews were not allowed to sell such rejected
consorts as slaves -- that was at least one advance in
civilization. Though the social standards of the Hebrews
were crude, they were far above those of the surrounding
tribes.
69:8.5
The herders were the first capitalists; their herds
represented capital, and they lived on the interest --
the natural increase. And they were disinclined to trust
this wealth to the keeping of either slaves or women.
But later on they took male prisoners and forced them to
cultivate the soil. This is the early origin of serfdom
-- man attached to the land. The Africans could easily
be taught to till the soil; hence they became the great
slave race.
69:8.6
Slavery was an indispensable link in the chain of human
civilization. It was the bridge over which society
passed from chaos and indolence to order and civilized
activities; it compelled backward and lazy peoples to
work and thus provide wealth and leisure for the social
advancement of their superiors.
69:8.7
The institution of slavery compelled man to invent the
regulative mechanism of primitive society; it gave
origin to the beginnings of government. Slavery demands
strong regulation and during the European Middle Ages
virtually disappeared because the feudal lords could not
control the slaves. The backward tribes of ancient
times, like the native Australians of today, never had
slaves.
69:8.8
True, slavery was oppressive, but it was in the schools
of oppression that man learned industry. Eventually the
slaves shared the blessings of a higher society which
they had so unwillingly helped create. Slavery creates
an organization of culture and social achievement but
soon insidiously attacks society internally as the
gravest of all destructive social maladies.
69:8.9
Modern mechanical invention rendered the slave obsolete.
Slavery, like polygamy, is passing because it does not
pay. But it has always proved disastrous suddenly to
liberate great numbers of slaves; less trouble ensues
when they are gradually emancipated.
69:8.10
Today, men are not social slaves, but thousands allow
ambition to enslave them to debt. Involuntary slavery
has given way to a new and improved form of modified
industrial servitude.
69:8.11
While the ideal of society is universal freedom,
idleness should never be tolerated. All able-bodied
persons should be compelled to do at least a
self-sustaining amount of work.
69:8.12
Modern society is in reverse. Slavery has nearly
disappeared; domesticated animals are passing.
Civilization is reaching back to fire -- the inorganic
world -- for power. Man came up from savagery by way of
fire, animals, and slavery; today he reaches back,
discarding the help of slaves and the assistance of
animals, while he seeks to wrest new secrets and sources
of wealth and power from the elemental storehouse of
nature.
9. PRIVATE PROPERTY
69:9.1
While primitive society was virtually communal,
primitive man did not adhere to the modern doctrines of
communism. The communism of these early times was not a
mere theory or social doctrine; it was a simple and
practical automatic adjustment. Communism prevented
pauperism and want; begging and prostitution were almost
unknown among these ancient tribes.
69:9.2
Primitive communism did not especially level men down,
nor did it exalt mediocrity, but it did put a premium on
inactivity and idleness, and it did stifle industry and
destroy ambition. Communism was indispensable
scaffolding in the growth of primitive society, but it
gave way to the evolution of a higher social order
because it ran counter to four strong human
proclivities:
69:9.3
1. The family.
Man not only craves to accumulate property; he desires
to bequeath his capital goods to his progeny. But in
early communal society a man's capital was either
immediately consumed or distributed among the group at
his death. There was no inheritance of property -- the
inheritance tax was one hundred per cent. The later
capital-accumulation and property-inheritance mores were
a distinct social advance. And this is true
notwithstanding the subsequent gross abuses attendant
upon the misuse of capital.
69:9.4
2. Religious
tendencies. Primitive man also wanted to save up
property as a nucleus for starting life in the next
existence. This motive explains why it was so long the
custom to bury a man's personal belongings with him. The
ancients believed that only the rich survived death with
any immediate pleasure and dignity. The teachers of
revealed religion, more especially the Christian
teachers, were the first to proclaim that the poor could
have salvation on equal terms with the rich.
69:9.5
3. The desire for
liberty and leisure. In the earlier days of social
evolution the apportionment of individual earnings among
the group was virtually a form of slavery; the worker
was made slave to the idler. This was the suicidal
weakness of communism: The improvident habitually lived
off the thrifty. Even in modern times the improvident
depend on the state (thrifty taxpayers) to take care of
them. Those who have no capital still expect those who
have to feed them.
69:9.6
4. The urge for
security and power. Communism was finally destroyed
by the deceptive practices of progressive and successful
individuals who resorted to diverse subterfuges in an
effort to escape enslavement to the shiftless idlers of
their tribes. But at first all hoarding was secret;
primitive insecurity prevented the outward accumulation
of capital. And even at a later time it was most
dangerous to amass too much wealth; the king would be
sure to trump up some charge for confiscating a rich
man's property, and when a wealthy man died, the funeral
was held up until the family donated a large sum to
public welfare or to the king, an inheritance tax.
69:9.7
In earliest times women were the property of the
community, and the mother dominated the family. The
early chiefs owned all the land and were proprietors of
all the women; marriage required the consent of the
tribal ruler. With the passing of communism, women were
held individually, and the father gradually assumed
domestic control. Thus the home had its beginning, and
the prevailing polygamous customs were gradually
displaced by monogamy. (Polygamy is the survival of the
female-slavery element in marriage. Monogamy is the
slave-free ideal of the matchless association of one man
and one woman in the exquisite enterprise of home
building, offspring rearing, mutual culture, and
self-improvement.)
69:9.8
At first, all property, including tools and weapons, was
the common possession of the tribe. Private property
first consisted of all things personally touched. If a
stranger drank from a cup, the cup was henceforth his.
Next, any place where blood was shed became the property
of the injured person or group.
69:9.9
Private property was thus originally respected because
it was supposed to be charged with some part of the
owner's personality. Property honesty rested safely on
this type of superstition; no police were needed to
guard personal belongings. There was no stealing within
the group, though men did not hesitate to appropriate
the goods of other tribes. Property relations did not
end with death; early, personal effects were burned,
then buried with the dead, and later, inherited by the
surviving family or by the tribe.
69:9.10
The ornamental type of personal effects originated in
the wearing of charms. Vanity plus ghost fear led early
man to resist all attempts to relieve him of his
favorite charms, such property being valued above
necessities.
69:9.11
Sleeping space was one of man's earliest properties.
Later, homesites were assigned by the tribal chiefs, who
held all real estate in trust for the group. Presently a
fire site conferred ownership; and still later, a well
constituted title to the adjacent land.
69:9.12
Water holes and wells were among the first private
possessions. The whole fetish practice was utilized to
guard water holes, wells, trees, crops, and honey.
Following the loss of faith in the fetish, laws were
evolved to protect private belongings. But game laws,
the right to hunt, long preceded land laws. The American
red man never understood private ownership of land; he
could not comprehend the white man's view.
69:9.13
Private property was early marked by family insignia,
and this is the early origin of family crests. Real
estate could also be put under the watchcare of spirits.
The priests would "consecrate" a piece of land, and it
would then rest under the protection of the magic taboos
erected thereon. Owners thereof were said to have a
"priest's title." The Hebrews had great respect for
these family landmarks: "Cursed be he who removes his
neighbor's landmark." These stone markers bore the
priest's initials. Even trees, when initialed, became
private property.
69:9.14
In early days only the crops were private, but
successive crops conferred title; agriculture was thus
the genesis of the private ownership of land.
Individuals were first given only a life tenureship; at
death land reverted to the tribe. The very first land
titles granted by tribes to individuals were graves --
family burying grounds. In later times land belonged to
those who fenced it. But the cities always reserved
certain lands for public pasturage and for use in case
of siege; these "commons" represent the survival of the
earlier form of collective ownership.
69:9.15
Eventually the state assigned property to the
individual, reserving the right of taxation. Having made
secure their titles, landlords could collect rents, and
land became a source of income -- capital. Finally land
became truly negotiable, with sales, transfers,
mortgages, and foreclosures.
69:9.16
Private ownership brought increased liberty and enhanced
stability; but private ownership of land was given
social sanction only after communal control and
direction had failed, and it was soon followed by a
succession of slaves, serfs, and landless classes. But
improved machinery is gradually setting men free from
slavish toil.
69:9.17
The right to property is not absolute; it is purely
social. But all government, law, order, civil rights,
social liberties, conventions, peace, and happiness, as
they are enjoyed by modern peoples, have grown up around
the private ownership of property.
69:9.18
The present social order is not necessarily right -- not
divine or sacred -- but mankind will do well to move
slowly in making changes. That which you have is vastly
better than any system known to your ancestors. Make
certain that when you change the social order you change
for the better. Do not be persuaded to experiment with
the discarded formulas of your forefathers. Go forward,
not backward! Let evolution proceed! Do not take a
backward step.
69:9.19
Presented by a Melchizedek of Nebadon.
*
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