Martin Gantman

Tag: Transformation

  • On Civilization 12

    The Ever-unfolding Marriage of

    Loewenmensch and Venus of Hohle Fels

    We imagine there must have been a lot of grunting, nodding, and gesturing during the wedding ceremony, since there seems not yet to have been any kind of complex verbal language – nor did there seem to be, as well, any explicit communication system – no markings, no graphic signs, no pictographs, no alphabet with which they could commemorate the wedding.

    But as the descendants of Mensch and Hohle Fels, and other families spread to the east – to Egypt and Mesopotamia, India and Pakistan, and west – to Britain, creating their farms and communities along the ways, complex communication became more important. And, surprise, the first 4,000 years of the development of written communication was not about personal interrelating but was all about commerce – keeping account of commercial transactions.


    As demonstrated by the fact that I am still talking about this time, the Neolithic period (+/-9,000 to +/- 3,000BC) seems to have been one of the most densely productive times in human history. And one of the most astounding accomplishments within this approximately 6 to 8,000-year period was the evolution of a written and aural language that became increasingly more intricate and abstract. It developed almost concurrently, but independently, in China and in Mesoamerica, but the creation of complex language appears to have begun in Sumer, in the western part of what is now called Iran.

    For millions of years hominid roamed the Earth, primarily Africa and its surrounds, with very basic (in comparison to our own) communication skills. Neither homo habilis, nor homo erectus, nor homo sapiens evolved their communication to any degree – until this Neolithic time. Then, suddenly, it all changed. Some say it happened in tandem with an increase of brain size and a corresponding development of the vocal tract. Others posit that the invention and use of tools drove a development of the brain that ultimately led to this improvement of language skills.

    In his book, The Phenomenon of Man, Teilhard de Chardin discusses that, put simply, when humans coalesce, gather into larger and denser groups, an energy is created that propels humanity toward greater understanding and accomplishment – although he does hold off until the book’s appendix to raise the topic of the negative side of human evolution.

    Credit to “The Evolution of Writing” by Denise Schmandt-Besserat for images and information.

  • On Civilization 11

    The Ever-Unfolding Marriage of 

    Loewenmensch and Venus of Hohle Fels

    None of the previously described processes was happening in isolation. Population had spread throughout the Earth, not just central Europe, Egypt, and Mesopotamia, but also cultures in eastern Asia had flourished throughout the Neolithic, beginning as far back as 18,000 BC. And civilizations in Mesoamerica were beginning to independently develop – the Olmec and the Maya.

    Loewen as Bes

    Back in northern Africa, Loewen was not content to confine himself to the animal kingdom. In Egypt he created another identity, Bes, who, with his consort Beset, fashioned themselves as Egyptian deities. They began their mission in Egypt and descended quickly south, into Nubia and Somalia. Their notoriety and following quickly spread to the middle East, into Syria, and then west as far as the Balearic Islands, primarily Ibiza. Oddly enough, the king and queen of the animal world were also idolized as the protectors of homes, families, and children.

    Other ideas began to spread. Egypt’s concepts about architecture, and art, traveled north through Cyprus, Crete, Malta, into Turkey and Greece – and east to Mesopotamia. The Mesopotamians developed the earliest notions about writing – eventually more abstract than the pictographic markings of the Egyptians, they ultimately originated an alphabet – and the thinking of Gilgamesh and Hammurabi, relating to governance progressed westward after the 2nd and 1st millennia BC.

    Which talk about the civilizing of society brings us to the subjects of ritual human sacrifice.

    Burial Pit

    Strongly related to the more benign sounding, but extraordinarily illusory, and to this day commonly accepted notion of personal religious sacrifice; ritual sacrifice, regularly practiced into the first millennium AD in Europe, Africa, and Asia; and in Mesoamerica until the invasion of the Spanish in the 1600s AD, was simply the taking of human life by other, more powerful humans, for purposeful, but practically unsubstantiated gain. People were buried alive, stabbed with pikes through their skulls, and poisoned, among many other creatively murderous methods, for purposes ranging from ensuring the longevity of a building, to justifying the waging of war, to establishing one’s hierarchical space in some hypothetically imagined afterlife

    Why is this topic so important to inject – during the time when what we designate as culture was beginning to evolve in fascinating ways throughout the world? Because during my lifetime, not to mention all human history, there has rarely been a day without war – somewhere on this planet. And war, though sometimes defensively necessary, consists of the taking of lives. It is related to our, human, attitude about the value of life – someone else’s life. And that perspective is an intrinsic piece of the construct that is characterized as civilization.

  • On Civilization 10

    The Ever-unfolding Marriage of

    Loewenmensch and Venus of Hohle Fels

    What Happened?

    What happened after Loewenmensch’s transition? In a sense he was suddenly gone! Hohle Fels was confused about her connection to whom she had married: The Loewen? The Mensch?

    After the Transition

    It is difficult to know for sure what exactly occurred during that densely transitional time between the wedding and, perhaps, around 3,000 BC. Authorities and experts disagree, but it feels like Hohle Fels ultimately went inside – inside herself, and inside the family compound with Mensch – by his side in his role as her king; and amid the work being accomplished at home.

    Pharoah

    At first, as her immediate world became dense, with the populations of settlements increasing, she worked as a co-equal partner with Mensch in the process of developing their estate, but time separated their roles, as the administering of State and religion diverged from the maintenance of home. She might have divined a sense of this future had she closely read the laws of her wedding officiant, Hammurabi.

    Hohle Fels at Home

    We may also never know the purpose for which those first likenesses, of the women of the wedding party, were created. But now, in this end of Neolithic time, we, and maybe Hohle Fels as well, miss the perception of ebullience that we enjoyed when we first saw them. In the later stages of the Neolithic she rarely appears as a visible or equal consultant about administrative operations. The images we see of her and her descendants seem to convey the notion that she ultimately became circumscribed within her dual abstract roles in the quasi-human domain; goddess of desires and crops, and caretaker of her personal domicile. Roles that have continued almost consistently until this day.

    Goddess

  • On Civilization 9

    The Ever-unfolding Marriage of

    Loewenmensch and Venus of Hohle Fels

    At a certain point, around the time of the conversion from matriarchies to patriarchies, roughly around 3000 BC, Loewenmensch, recognizing the complexities of the evolving world, decided to cleave his (their) dual personalities and separate into Loewen (lion) and Mensch (human). He (They) trekked to his (their) familiar ritual spot, beneath the dense trees and cool filtered light of the Black Forest, quiet and secluded, and began his (their) transformation.

    Morphosis

    Inaudibly, they transitioned through their separate identities, their original selves disappearing into the inaccessible past; morphing through various forms until settling on manifestations appropriate to their evolutionary time. Lion preemptively assumed his role as king of the animal realm, and Mensch appropriated his position as king of the human world.

    Lion decided the animal world would remain as hunter/gatherers. Their society became a system of natural struggle and contest. It derived its hierarchies through battle, with Lion as king, through its differences in personal traits, tactics, and physical ability.

    The human world, ruled by Mensch, ultimately emerged as a system of property and possession. As societies became denser, a system of artificial order and regulations was developed that governed the behavior of individuals, not only to influence the conduct among human relationships, but also to preserve the logistical systems, related to property, that had been set in place. These systems eventually came to be protected by groups of enforcers that were created and organized by Mensch and later rulers. Initially selected by the populace, the order of rule later became familial, passing from son to son (and sometimes daughter), until such times when factions of greater strength overwhelmed the rule in place.