Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-11-09
THO. Sense of Sin

Confusedly under the stimulus Of the
need and possibility of cooperation and
combined life, Neolithic mankind was feel
ing out for guidance and knowledge. Men
were becoming aware that personally they
needed protection and direction, cleansing
from impurity, power beyond their own
strength. Confusedly in response to that
demand, bold men, wisei men, shrewd and
cunning men were arising to become ma
gicians, priests, chiefs and kings. They are
not to be thought of as cheats or usurpers
of power, nor the rest Of mankind as their
dupes. ALI men are mixed in their motives;
hundred things move men to seek as
cendancy over other men, but not all such
motives are base or bad The magicians
usually believed more or less in their own
magic, the priests in their ceremonies, the
chiefs in their right.
The history of mankind henceforth is a
history of more or less blind endeavor to
conceive common purpose in relation to
which all men may live happily, and to
create and develop common consciousness
and common stock OF knowledge which may
serve and illuminate that purpose In a
vast variety Of forms this appearance of
kings and priests and magic men was hap
pening all over \the world under Neolithic
conditions.
Everywhere mankind was seeking where
knowledge and mastery and magic power
might reside; Everywhere individual men
were willing, honestly or dishonesty, to
rule, to direct or to be the magic beings
who would reconcile the Commissions of the
community.
Another queer development Of the later
Palaeolithic and Neolithic ages was the de-
velopment of standardization. Men began
| to cut themselves about, to excise noses,
ears, fingers, teeth and the like, and to at
latch all sorts Of superstitious ideas to these
| acts. Many children today pass through a
similar phase in their mental DEVELOPMENT
There is phase in the life Of most little
girls when they are not to be left alone
with pair of scissors for fear that they
will cut off their hair. No animal does
anything OF this sort.
''Magic Murder
In many ways the simplicity, directness
and detachment OF. later Palaeolithic rock
painter appeal more to modern sympathy
than does the state Of mind of the Neolithic
men, full Of the fear of some ancient OLD
Man who had developed into tribal god
obsessed by ideas Of sacrificial propitiations,
| mutilations and magic murder.
No doubt the reindeer hunter was a
ruthless hunter and combative and pas
sfonate creature, but he killed for reasons
we can still understand; Neolithic man.
| under the sway of talk and confused
thought process, killed on theory, he killed
for monstrous and now incredible ideas. he
killed those he loved through fear and I'M
der direction.
Those Neolithicl men not only made hui
man sacrifices at seedtime; there is every
reason to suppose they sacrificed wives and
slaves at the burial Of their chieftains: thew
killed men, women and children whenever
they were under adversely and thought the
gods were athirst. They practiced infanti-
eide. All these things passed on into the
Bronze Age.
hitherto social consciousness has beer
asleep and not. even dreaming in human
history. Before it awakened it produced
Nightmares.
ITO BE CONTINUED