For many an average Westerner, much of our human origin legend has largely been framed by cultural mythology from Biblical narratives taught to us in childhood. Even the more educated, who have understood the evolutionary development, not only of humans and other creatures but of evolution theory itself, still hold strong mental images of Biblical scenes, characters and events.
However, few of these stories can be fully supported or verified by archaeological or historical evidence and often contradict modern research. Secondly, these tales, if at all true are most likely vastly embellished or simply blatantly plagiarized from adopted mythologies while in exile in Egypt, Babylon and under Persian rule. (btw 1700- 700 bce) What relevance do they even have to us non Jewish or Islamic people?
Ironically the histories, mythologies and sacred lore of our own western, (non Semitic) ancestors and tribes, which precede the Old Testament by centuries are long forgotten. While we have retained a large amount of our cultural heritage, including our legal system, story telling, marriage and other rites of passage, western philosophy, feasting, celebrating and industrious development, our rich folklore is largely lost.
As a starting point, the transition from our Paleolithic, almost animalistic roots, where our primary concerns were food, shelter and survival, to our more human-like Neolithic stage, which is attributed significantly to the Cognitive Revolution around 65000 bce, is a notable leap. An awakening of our frontal lobe, leading to advancements in speech, art, and tool-making, and the concept of agency - eventually 'gods, set us apart from the other creatures'. Our ability to organize ourselves in large groups ( unlike other large creatures) and be flexible ( unlike large swarms like bees and ants) elevated humans' position in the hierarchical food chain and as a dominant force.
The steady evolution and unique advancement of ancient European tribes, such as the Beaker people, the Corded Ware/ Plaited Ware, and Battle/ Boat Axe cultures, which existed in Northern Europe, Scandinavia and Briton, from as early as 2950 bce, (a thousand five hundred + years before characters like Abram and Moses- still not verified scientifically or mentioned by any other contemporary culture like Egypt or Babylon) are the reason we are more advanced than the third world cultures, despite Biblical law.
These precursory tribes eventually contributed to the formation of our Scandinavian, Germanic and British forefathers, while developing our legacy of agriculture, architecture, civil engineering, ship building, cartography, justice, navigation, democracy, etc.
When our Dutch. German. French and British ancestors fled the constant wars and depressions of 18h century Europe, their resilience and migratory instinct afforded them the wherewithal to prosper in the undeveloped foreign lands they settled in. Today in South Africa, where my ancestors settled, we call Heritage day, braai day. And we sure love to feast and drink like our Pagan ancestors, don't we!
On this Heritage Day, we honor our western ancestors who endured poverty, famines, constant wars and injustice, great depressions, inquisitions revolutions, and we recognize their resilience and struggles that paved the way for our easy existence today.
We live in the best times in the history of humanity.
So do not look down your nose at the seeming atrocities committed in the name of our evolutionary development young people. Rather celebrate that your predecessors survived, so that you could even exist. Skòl! Happy Heritage day!
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