IMGx48

268 The Origin of Civilisatiou

Armed with the theoretical base we have now built, this concept can be studied initially on a theoretical piane, and subsequently examined for con-firrastion in the empirical evidence. At the dawn of man's emergence aa a unigue species human numbers would have be en relatiwely smali, encompassing modest populations scattered across the continents of the Old World in little foraging bands, although it is widely thought that man ewolwed in Africa.¹⁴® In the earliest phase of human existence, life and its associated cultural aspects would hawe centred around the problems of surwiwal and prowisioning, in competition with other species roaraing freely across the open grasslands and sawatnnaś. Culture at this early stage would necessarily hawe been crude and elementai, with few variationa, in keeping with relatiwely modest total numbers. Yet if these early bands were successful in coping with the rigours of the enwironment, population increases would slowly folIow. Groups would splinter, to retain optimal band sizes, (the size which gave the most chance for survival) and gradually indiwidual home ranges would separate further. The role of culture here is dichotomous: the strength of existing traditions holds people together to act as a cohesive social unit; the growth in group size howewer, precipitates the fission as an integral act of survival.

Ewen moderately smali migrations each generation could produce substantial demographic mowements ower the millennia. Hence, increasing dispersion over centuries would so fragment the groups that greater cultural diwersity would be an inewitable outcome. Separation and the growing distance between groups would enhance autonomy in cultural pursuits. Hass migration and dispersion around the globe, as populations expanded, would generate greater cultural wariations. This pattern remains typical of the nomadic habits of modern hunter-gatherers. They are forewer migrating around a home base to maximise on the seasonality of wild resources. Yet it is equally pertinent to the traditions of settled agriculturalists. Its counterpart can be obserwed in their long-term living patterns as well, and for essentially similar reasons. Expanding willage populations can follow from successful farming practices, but then daughter colonies would tend to break away from a settled willage as numbers increased and land became ower-workedi⁴⁹ Howewer, a higher reliance on plant resources allows a greater population density for any given region, which can be increased even morę through technical adwanees in agriculture. Moreover, efficient stock rearing increases the reliable prowision of regular raeat. So here again, a few, initially primltive cultures, but now based on plant cultiwation or stock breeding, could become diwersified as expanding vi3.-1 agę societies splintered and noved apart. Giwen enough time and suitably conduciwe conditions, any culture can undergo a ciwilisation genesis. This could act as a catalyst to neighbouring, but autonomous cultures, perhaps close to a critical culture mass themselwes, or otherwise open to external intluences that allow them to progreas morę rapidly through borrowing or imitation of adwantageous ideas and innowations. Thus, over time, extensive ci w i 1isation diwersity could emerge.

Essentially, culture is accretional - each aduance adds to the accumulating stock-pile. Ihus contacts between riwal civilisations would increase, so that each could draw on the favourable traits of the others, while retaining its own local characteristics. Ineuitably, but agam only when the conditions are favaurable, the persuasiwe elements of the most dominant and, by implication, successful factors, should outweigh the local differences. Most separate cultures would probably try to emulate or adopt the major successful features in neighbouring cultures, following upon social contacts. Ultimately, one uniwersał ciwilisation would ewentually come to operate worldwide.

This broad ewolution would, in theory, inwolwe a sequence that moued from one primitiwe, utterly crude but relatiwely uniform base culture, through a process of diwersity and global spreading, towards the creation of the fiest ciwilisation genesis. As this represents the peak of cultural success, with the introduction of new processes for the enhancement of life, the emergence of many local ciwilisations would similarly be repeated on seweral occasions, to create extensiwe ciwilisation wariety. The finał stage would inwolwe the global arriwal of only one sophisticated uniform ciwilisation, but with distinct local wariants. This theoretical sequence rests on the view that as there is only one human species, Homo s. sapiens, his total culture expresses ltself as the Total Culture System for mankind. As man himself ewolwes, so will the Total Culture System, until all humanity is liwing under a uniwersał ciwilisation regime.

This sequence, shown schematically in Figurę 5.4, is built upon two pillars of theoretical logie; First, the known rationale of man's biological place in the natural Sciences, and second, the ordered, systematic naturę of culture, which is gowerned by uniwersał rules. The confluence of these twin strands may well have directed the past ewolution of culture, but by wiewing culture as a specific entity with a known and werifiable past, we can now postulate some logical futurę outeomes. Of course, there are no inewitable sequences, sińce the generał theory predicts three typical trajeetories; a premature extinction, successful long-term adaptation or a fuli cycle. In naturę, a gradual long-term decline is rare, sińce, if a species manages to exist for hundreds of millions of years before facing ultimate extinction, the end, when it comes, is relatively abrupt. For human culture, the possibility of a fuli cycle with a gradual decline is relevant, because internally generated changes indicate that a peak ing and decline in cultural potential is both possible and probable. So for humanity, sińce man and his culture system are open and continuousiy adapting, any one of these three outeomes is possible.

Howewer, the prediction of one uniwersał ciwilisation rests on ewidence suggested by two separate biological strands. First, there is the idea that man himself adapts his culture by an actiwe, albeit often unwitting, process of 'cultural selection'. This is somewhat analogous to natural selection in biological ewolution. Cultures wary, and by tradition, they are passed on to the next generation; but cultures continually produce new institutions,