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.
