By Richard Martin
I’d like to start by describing an archetypal antinomy, centre versus periphery. The centre is the core of “explored territory,” to use Jordan Peterson’s term for what is known and considered secure and safe. However, explored territory becomes less known, less safe, and less secure as we move to the periphery. At the most extreme periphery, lies the unknown, the unsafe, the non-secure. Which leads to anxiety and fear. Here be dragons.
The core of this ground, this explored territory, is the safest, most secure, and most coveted of all. Whether on the cosmic, the earthly, or the tribal scales. At the centre of the cosmos is the world-tree. It is the pole that holds up the tent of the heavens, the pivot around which revolve the firmament, the axis mundi. The firmament of the sky holds back the waters of the heavens, which can burst through at any moment, causing deluge and disaster, or lifegiving rains. The earth floats on the waters below, where lurk dragons, worms, serpents, and other monsters and terrors. Sometimes, the heavens are held up by the pillars of the earth, each located at the four corners, where the four winds come from.
At the centre of our land, we, the Human Beings (the name for most peoples in their languages), lie our sacred springs. Or our sacred grove. The rocks or trees or holes from which emerged our ancestors, First Man and First Woman. Sometimes, First Man was created first by the Creator, often from his semen. Sometimes, First Woman was created first, or was simply the Cosmos who became the World and the People. We are the First People, born from the Earth herself. We are the autochthonous ones, the indigenous ones. The first is Greek for “springing from the Earth,” the second is Latin for “being created here.”
We, the Human Beings, are the Children of First Man and First Woman, or sometimes, their grandchildren and great grandchildren, the descendants of the Heroes who fought and killed the dragon, or who found dry land after the Flood. Which is why we must honour and love our Ancestors. They loved us and protected us when they were in this life. Now, they live on in the spirit world. We must keep them happy and satisfied, so they will continue to love us and care for us. Without the help and protection of our Ancestors, how could we possibly survive and thrive? How could we protect ourselves from the evil spirits under the control of our enemies, of the Others, who want to kill Human Beings.
We, the Human Beings, emerged from our mother, the earth. She is our Great Mother, and we must care for her. If we, her Children, care for her and protect her, she will care for us, she will nurture us, she will protect us. But we must be ever humble before her enormous power, and love. Or she will devour us whole.
Now in the settlement, we have a perimeter also. It can be a Zulu kraal, or a low wall, or the outer walls of our family compound. Often, the settlement is laid out in a circle, with a hearth in the middle, and a periphery, protected by outer walls, fences, … or ditches. Outside the family or clan compound lies the hamlet. These are the homesteads and compounds of our relatives. They also have a centre-periphery layout of their homes. Just beyond the homestead or hamlet are the fields, or the range for the livestock. The women tend the fields, which are often their property. The young men tend the livestock, with the help of the boys. The older men and the elders gather at the centre of the village or hamlet. The discuss the ideas of the day, resolve disputes, debate issues of war and peace. At the centre, the safest and most sacred part of the habitation. Near the central tree, or pillar. The elders form the senate (senatus in Latin, which means council of elders).
Protectors must patrol the periphery to ensure that there are no predators who can penetrate. They are on the watch for intruders, who can come to steal, rape and pillage. They might try to kill “us,” steal our women, destroy our crops, or worse. They try to conquer us or wipe us out. We must therefore establish a perimeter, from which we can keep watch (Wacht am Rhein) and counter any threats. The Great Wall of China. Hadrian’s Wall. The Roman Limes.
The protectors keeping watch at the perimeter are guardians. They are our heroes. They are on the lookout for invaders, dangerous foes. In primitive societies – sub-tribal, nomadic (actually, semi-nomadic, for they occupy and defend a territory over which they range with the seasons) foragers, and tribal horticultural and agricultural societies, intruders and even simple wanderers would often be killed on sight. Shoot first, ask questions later. The belief was that intruders were a sign of worse to come. Even a lone individual or small party of hunters could be a harbinger of future war parties. The idea was that the group’s hunting and foraging grounds would attract the interest of neighbouring groups. Even a lone wanderer might bring “good news” back to his group about the great pickings to be had just over the river, in the next valley, or beyond the forest.
To stand guard at the periphery by establishing a secure perimeter was therefore entirely rational. And continues to be entirely rational. It also provides a good jumping off point for exploring beyond home country, to find new resources and to conduct pre-emptive raids against marauders and others, while gaining important information, conducting reconnaissance, and bringing back livestock, women, and captured warriors as war booty and slaves. The human stock could also be integrated into one’s tribe or band to offset prior losses due to war, famine, or sickness, and thus ensure the continued existence of the group. The group was (is) the most important form of wealth, protection, and security.
But there are also sources of insecurity inside the group. These may be witches, sorcerers, magicians, casting spells, wielding the evil eye, conjuring evil spirits. Or maybe just talking behind one’s back. Whispering. Planning. Conspiring. In such a society, men – always men – must guard their honour with care. It can take years, decades even, to build up enough mana, orenda, or manitou to be intimidating, or to rally others to one’s side. And it can all be destroyed in a single moment by losing face. Why follow a man when he can be so readily defeated, beaten, insulted, dishonoured? Status is everything. Wealth, women, warriors, they are only means to the end of building up as much spiritual power as possible.
But why should others want to steal a man’s power? Envy, jealousy, resentment. There is too little to go around. How could he amass so much wealth and warriors? Where did all that livestock come from? Why do his fields (or rather, those of his wives) yield so much bounty? Why do women throw themselves at him? It can only be from wielding the evil spirits. It can only be from communing with the devil. He is a sorcerer. He is a magician. His spirit is strong. He needs to be brought down a notch or two. Or eliminated. His wives and daughters can be reassigned and married off. They can tend the fields and serve the men. The boys and youths can also join the upstart or usurpers, and can then tend the livestock and protect the perimeter for the new Big Man.
This requires strategy. It requires planning, conniving. Conspiring. So, the Big Man is not irrational to believe that others want what he has, whether it be his power, his wealth, his women, his warriors. There are dark forces lurking about who want to unseat him and make him a slave or a “rubbish man.” They are conspiring in the shadows, and they are working their magic with the evil spirits. The dead can be conjured and made to do one’s bidding. The Big Man is right to be wary. He must remain outwardly humble. He must use his mana to adjudicate disputes. When he does so, he incurs payment. It may be a goat. Or a promise to come to his aid should he need it. If they go on a raid and capture women, slaves, and other prizes, he can share them with his closest allies. But always, always, he must appear humble, generous, forgiving (but never forgetting?), shrewd, magnanimous. Lest he appear too threatening to others, the upstarts, those with ambition. Often those youths who are smarter, stronger, shrewder than others.
There is a deep-seated inclination to organize space into symbolic centres and peripheries, which underpins psyche and society. These enduring patterns of human behaviour highlight the universal quest for security against the unknown, and this symbolic architecture helps to grasp the complexities of human world through time.
© 2024 Richard Martin
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