Before I publish part 2 of this project, I thought it would be worthwhile to delve into a key life experience which forms much of the rationale behind it. This is not an academic effort by any means, though I do argue that the Manifesto of the Human Family is supported by evidence obtained using the scientific method. Cultural relativism, participant observation, and cultural materialism are key methods involved in its creation.
The idea behind this project is simple: human animals in state societies don't know how to live, or be human animals. This is of course a generalization, since some of us have managed to get in touch with a humanity that we never received from the enculturation process; yet it is nevertheless an accurate assessment based upon observations I have made of disparate groups over the course of a lifetime spent living in different regions of the world.
I've known a sea of faces, and listened to their voices. I've walked the streets of cities, passed through innumerable towns, and explored the countryside. I didn't understand what I was seeing until I involved myself with a group of people who sought to escape the corrupting influence of human civilization. I learned an invaluable lesson while I was a part of their community...it changed how I thought about myself, others, and this world.
In the beginning, they were just *there.* There wasn't an hierarchy, division of labor, or haves and have nots. This is what attracted me to them in the first place. They wanted to live in a sustainable manner with the land, and attempted to make everything they needed with their own hands. It was quite a sight to see. I had never seen anything like it before in my travels - it was a marvel.
I fit right in, and it wasn't long before I discovered my own talents: I was good at making sturdy, durable things with my hands, and I had a strong back. One of the elders of this community took me under his wing, and over time I learned how to listen to trees and recognize their primeval significance. I discovered how to only use trees that had fallen, or reached the end of their life cycle. The vital tree *must* be left alive, just like the very large ones. If they are destroyed by our hands, we destroy a web of life. We are a part of that web.
He taught me how to focus the power of my hands. He also taught me how to be alive and be a human animal. We are not what we do, and we are not the artificial things which might surround us. We are the land, the trees, the deer, and the lake. He didn't "teach" me these things in the sense that I sat and listened to words...he guided me on a journey that I had elected to take.
Something had to happen first: the concrete, glass, and steel had to be ripped out of me. The vulcanized rubber, the packaged ham, the rules, the laws, and illusions of a living death had to go. This wasn't something that I was told, but rather something that happened to me in stages. It was both a rational and spiritual process. The rational had to be reforged in order to accommodate the spiritual, and live in a unity that is meant to be. Nothing in this artificial world remotely resembles it - there is no formula and no ritual to coax it out, because this spirituality is a living thing. It is just like the trees, the land, the deer, and the lake. It just *is*.
It will grow if we demolish the prison built to contain it. That prison is called the state society. While we exist in such societies, these societies also exist *within* us. I became painfully acquainted with the reality of the situation over the span of five years in this community, watching an amazing thing encroached upon by the state society. Over time, folks in the group decided to listen to a small circle of people, and these people became the trustees of the land we were living on. This was the beginning of the end. An hierarchy emerged, and it wasn't long before the concrete, glass, and steel returned with an inhuman vengeance.
I left after the circle of trustees made the first of a number of power plays. They were in control, and it became *their* community. The agony of my departure was almost unbearable, and I spent the better part of a decade attempting to understand what happened, and why.
The Manifesto of the Human Family is a result of this experience.
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Sunday, February 16, 2014
The Manifesto of the Human Family, Part I
What follows is the manifesto of the human family, an evolutionary lineage of bipedal ape in danger of extinction.
Definition of Human
The human animal is understood to be a hominoid ape. Humans are not the only extant hominoid apes.
Born on the continental landmass called Africa approximately two million solar years before present, the human family emerged from the Paleolithic equatorial forest to spread across the entire globe. The human ape is recognized by the presence of the following attributes occurring simultaneously in the same organism:
Variability of Human Expression
Due to the early global diversity of the human family, regionally-variable pressures exerted upon geographically isolated descent groups of humans, expressed in the Theory of Natural Selection, resulted in a wide range of phenotypical expression in humans over a long period of time. Skin pigmentation developed as a response to ambient ultraviolet radiation, preventing damage to internal biological structures; height and body density adjusted to cope with the need to efficiently shed heat or retain it; body hair distribution and pigmentation corresponded with the need to shed heat or retain it.
Every human living in the present era are known to be descendants of an indigenous African population approximately 50,000 years before present as explained in the Out of Africa Theory (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/02/080221-human-genetics.html). The Out of Africa Theory is supported by forensic analysis of human DNA. We therefore understand that our diverse global family is from the African continental landmass.
One Family
Due to a preponderance of evidence in the fossil record and in human DNA, we understand that humans are one family (species) manifesting a broad range of phenotypical expression. The descendants of the original African population spread across the world and separated by time, space, and geographical barriers, developed cultures unique in their material expression and psycho-social outlook.
We reject the notion of "race" as it has been deployed in complex modern cultures, functioning as a tool for stratification and a vehicle of oppression. We recognize "ethnicity" as an ancestral identification unique to certain geographically-affiliated cultural groups, but at the same time, we acknowledge that such distinctions are arbitrary and synthetic. We recognize culture as the only factor worthy of our attention.
We pledge to henceforth conduct ourselves as one evolutionary family in a manner befitting creatures of profound empathy and nuanced intellect. We cherish the cultural diversity of our family and seek to preserve the unique way of life that each cultural group represents in time and space. We declare every human, regardless of their phenotype and cultural association, to be our mothers, sisters, daughters, fathers, brothers, sons, friends, and comrades.
The Community of Living Things and Persons
The human family is understood to be a part of a greater community of related evolutionary families, and that this community includes all forms of life extant on Earth. Turning away from the folly and arrogance of our youth, we understand that all complex animal organisms are persons, or people, and that our family are not the only persons, or people, present on this planet. These evolutionary families of people, formerly referred to as "animals" in an effort to artificially separate our family from them, have been empirically demonstrated to possess their own unique cultural patterns and language systems, some of which are being studied by those of us engaged in scientific pursuits.
Because we accept all animals (and not just ourselves) as people, we pledge to treat every people native to this planet with the greatest of respect, affording them the dignity that all people deserve. We recognize this practice and outlook as ecologically imperative to the health and well-being of the community of living things, and the continued biodiversity of our planet. Furthermore, while we understand our evolutionary origin as ecological generalists suited to consume both vegetable and animal biological matter as sustenance, we accept that our present global overpopulation and ecological abuse has exhausted the capability of Earth's ecosystems to support our biological needs.
We pledge to end the destructive practice of pastoralism, and seek permanent and meaningful solutions to meet our biological needs. Pastoralism on a large scale has destroyed many of our planet's ecosystems and led to the extinction of entire evolutionary families of people, and is one causal factor behind our imminent extinction due to rapid global climate change, a phenomenon that we, and we alone, are responsible for causing.
At the same time, we pledge to preserve and energetically defend the rights of indigenous human peoples, many of whom exist in a state of homeostasis with their local environments, to hunt other non-human persons who traditionally served as sources of subsistence for their groups. We accept that their position in the natural order of their ancestral ecosystems is inviolate, similar in nature to the presence and activity of non-human predators such as wolves, tigers, or orca.
Definition of Human
The human animal is understood to be a hominoid ape. Humans are not the only extant hominoid apes.
Born on the continental landmass called Africa approximately two million solar years before present, the human family emerged from the Paleolithic equatorial forest to spread across the entire globe. The human ape is recognized by the presence of the following attributes occurring simultaneously in the same organism:
- Bipedal locomotion.
- Five-fingered hands capable of performing a wide variety of precision grip postures. These hands feature fully opposable thumbs.
- Large cranial capacity and a 2-1-2-3 heterodont dentition pattern.
- A complex material culture and a reliance upon tools.
- Cooperative hunting behavior.
- An intraspecies communication complex comprised of vocal, gestural, proxemic, and symbolic components. This communication complex is called "language."
Variability of Human Expression
Due to the early global diversity of the human family, regionally-variable pressures exerted upon geographically isolated descent groups of humans, expressed in the Theory of Natural Selection, resulted in a wide range of phenotypical expression in humans over a long period of time. Skin pigmentation developed as a response to ambient ultraviolet radiation, preventing damage to internal biological structures; height and body density adjusted to cope with the need to efficiently shed heat or retain it; body hair distribution and pigmentation corresponded with the need to shed heat or retain it.
Every human living in the present era are known to be descendants of an indigenous African population approximately 50,000 years before present as explained in the Out of Africa Theory (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/02/080221-human-genetics.html). The Out of Africa Theory is supported by forensic analysis of human DNA. We therefore understand that our diverse global family is from the African continental landmass.
One Family
Due to a preponderance of evidence in the fossil record and in human DNA, we understand that humans are one family (species) manifesting a broad range of phenotypical expression. The descendants of the original African population spread across the world and separated by time, space, and geographical barriers, developed cultures unique in their material expression and psycho-social outlook.
We reject the notion of "race" as it has been deployed in complex modern cultures, functioning as a tool for stratification and a vehicle of oppression. We recognize "ethnicity" as an ancestral identification unique to certain geographically-affiliated cultural groups, but at the same time, we acknowledge that such distinctions are arbitrary and synthetic. We recognize culture as the only factor worthy of our attention.
We pledge to henceforth conduct ourselves as one evolutionary family in a manner befitting creatures of profound empathy and nuanced intellect. We cherish the cultural diversity of our family and seek to preserve the unique way of life that each cultural group represents in time and space. We declare every human, regardless of their phenotype and cultural association, to be our mothers, sisters, daughters, fathers, brothers, sons, friends, and comrades.
The Community of Living Things and Persons
The human family is understood to be a part of a greater community of related evolutionary families, and that this community includes all forms of life extant on Earth. Turning away from the folly and arrogance of our youth, we understand that all complex animal organisms are persons, or people, and that our family are not the only persons, or people, present on this planet. These evolutionary families of people, formerly referred to as "animals" in an effort to artificially separate our family from them, have been empirically demonstrated to possess their own unique cultural patterns and language systems, some of which are being studied by those of us engaged in scientific pursuits.
Because we accept all animals (and not just ourselves) as people, we pledge to treat every people native to this planet with the greatest of respect, affording them the dignity that all people deserve. We recognize this practice and outlook as ecologically imperative to the health and well-being of the community of living things, and the continued biodiversity of our planet. Furthermore, while we understand our evolutionary origin as ecological generalists suited to consume both vegetable and animal biological matter as sustenance, we accept that our present global overpopulation and ecological abuse has exhausted the capability of Earth's ecosystems to support our biological needs.
We pledge to end the destructive practice of pastoralism, and seek permanent and meaningful solutions to meet our biological needs. Pastoralism on a large scale has destroyed many of our planet's ecosystems and led to the extinction of entire evolutionary families of people, and is one causal factor behind our imminent extinction due to rapid global climate change, a phenomenon that we, and we alone, are responsible for causing.
At the same time, we pledge to preserve and energetically defend the rights of indigenous human peoples, many of whom exist in a state of homeostasis with their local environments, to hunt other non-human persons who traditionally served as sources of subsistence for their groups. We accept that their position in the natural order of their ancestral ecosystems is inviolate, similar in nature to the presence and activity of non-human predators such as wolves, tigers, or orca.
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