Taking seriously Graham Hancock's speculation that "the mystery of death" founds the religion of deep antiquity, I feel compelled to point out that death, as we conceive of it, did not exist prior to sex. An obvious duality between love and death finds a self-dual monism within sex. Although mechanistic theories of the evolution of sex abound, there remains an aura of mystery surrounding the evolution of sex. Why sacrifice the power of self-reproduction? Certainly, there exist multicellular organisms that retain, via budding, parthenogenesis and hermaphroditism, vestiges of self-reproduction. However, there does seem to be a direction toward the sacrifice of power for love. Indeed, to the extent that reproduction by mitosis (cellular self-cloning) is a kind of immortality, this sacrifice entails self-sacrifice for love as a requirement for the continuation of life (reproduction).
The mythic resonances here need a little elaboration.
Some not-so-obvious dimensions:
In his book, "The Social Conquest of Earth", E. O. Wilson does his best to take mechanistic evolution into the realm of the religious by describing human civilizations from his perspective as a world-renowned entomologist specializing in specialization:
Eusocial Insects
As you read on, keep in mind: It is in the eusocial insects that war most obviously expresses. In fully-sexual species, forceful conflicts are between individuals.
All of us who have followed Graham Hancock's cross-disciplinary career need no reminder of the dangers of specialization.
But E. O. Wilson offers one searing insight based on his obvious identification with the natural world:
Eusocial organisms tend toward ecological dominance and humans, in particular, even though only incipiently eusocial, have taken this tendency to a potentially catastrophic extreme via technological civilization. And, of course, human war is similarly catastrophic.
Indeed, we are on the verge of Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" with reproductive technologies such as artificial wombs. Once that threshold has crossed, "corporations" or, more generally "incorporations" may become physical organisms incorporating humans as sterile castes specialized as workers, warriors, etc.:
The sacrifice of love for power and immortality.
Lest the point escape you:
This is a danger inherent in civilization.
A sufficiently developed civilization will recognize this and incorporate this recognition by sacralizing love and death in the self-duality of monistic sex.
Finally, I'll point out one more thing that may escape the more obvious mythic resonances:
The first "male", even if only a motile carrier of genetic information, emerged from someone who was not male and this likely occurred in "mare" aka the ocean.
Was this a "trick" that "stole power" from the primordial "female" -- by necessity a "virgin" -- as seems to have been suggested in Graham's most recent book?
If so, the price paid was death but with that price something even greater was purchased:
Love.
The mythic resonances here need a little elaboration.
Some not-so-obvious dimensions:
In his book, "The Social Conquest of Earth", E. O. Wilson does his best to take mechanistic evolution into the realm of the religious by describing human civilizations from his perspective as a world-renowned entomologist specializing in specialization:
Eusocial Insects
As you read on, keep in mind: It is in the eusocial insects that war most obviously expresses. In fully-sexual species, forceful conflicts are between individuals.
All of us who have followed Graham Hancock's cross-disciplinary career need no reminder of the dangers of specialization.
But E. O. Wilson offers one searing insight based on his obvious identification with the natural world:
Eusocial organisms tend toward ecological dominance and humans, in particular, even though only incipiently eusocial, have taken this tendency to a potentially catastrophic extreme via technological civilization. And, of course, human war is similarly catastrophic.
Indeed, we are on the verge of Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World" with reproductive technologies such as artificial wombs. Once that threshold has crossed, "corporations" or, more generally "incorporations" may become physical organisms incorporating humans as sterile castes specialized as workers, warriors, etc.:
The sacrifice of love for power and immortality.
Lest the point escape you:
This is a danger inherent in civilization.
A sufficiently developed civilization will recognize this and incorporate this recognition by sacralizing love and death in the self-duality of monistic sex.
Finally, I'll point out one more thing that may escape the more obvious mythic resonances:
The first "male", even if only a motile carrier of genetic information, emerged from someone who was not male and this likely occurred in "mare" aka the ocean.
Was this a "trick" that "stole power" from the primordial "female" -- by necessity a "virgin" -- as seems to have been suggested in Graham's most recent book?
If so, the price paid was death but with that price something even greater was purchased:
Love.