Hi, Tom!
Replying to an earlier post, you wrote:
>Not to be picky, but I suspect most anthropologists would argue that the
>family is the oldest institution. Following closely on its heels is trade,
>which predates religion by many millennia. Universities follow religion by
>many further millennia.
I'll give you the family, but religion is probably back there
almost as long. Hunter-gatherer societies (those we used to call
"primitives" in our smugness) tend to honor life as sacred, often adding
rituals and beliefs that appear very ancient indeed. Recorded history and
much archaeology suggests exchange of goods -- but we plain don't know if
the exchange was what we would consider trade, or if it was something much
different. The nature of the exchange, and whether, for instance, it was
considered "sacred" in some way, is unknown.
But picky or not, you're certainly right about family and trade;
and religion's probably another leg to the stool -- but not "The Church,"
which seems to be more of a Western institution.
Sam
--mxjeli@mail.wm.edu (Mariann Jelinek)
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>