Secret History #11: Dawn of the Human Imagination

Charles Darwin introduced evolutionary theory in 1859 through “On the Origin of Species,” fundamentally reshaping Western thought about human origins and purpose.

European colonizers and scientists applied evolutionary theory to justify racial hierarchies, claiming white races were evolutionarily superior to other populations.

Evolutionary theory established a new moral framework where strength and survival define what is right, replacing divine moral authority with natural selection as the ultimate arbiter.

Early humans exhibited unprecedented migratory behavior that distinguishes them from other primates, spreading across the globe including dangerous oceanic voyages to Pacific islands.

Both Neanderthals and Homo sapiens engaged in extensive religious ritual practices, constructing elaborate religious sites and dedicating significant resources to spiritual activities.

Homo sapiens created extraordinarily elaborate cave paintings 30,000-40,000 years ago, investing tremendous time and care in artworks located in dangerous, cold, oxygen-deprived deep cave systems.

Early humans possessed remarkable ability to collaborate and coordinate without verbal communication, language, or hierarchical organization—working together through pure intuition and empathy.

Early humans demonstrated remarkable organizational flexibility, spontaneously forming different group sizes and structures based on context without requiring bosses, explicit coordination, or communication.

Early humans understood existence through mythological frameworks depicting life and death as balanced cycles of destruction and renewal, where all beings exist in unified harmony.

Early humans developed spoken language not for economic coordination or hierarchical organization but for creative and musical expression—singing, storytelling, and artistic communication.

Early humans believed caves, rivers, and mountaintops served as portals connecting the material world with the spirit world, making these locations sacred sites for ritual and artistic practice.

Early humans understood themselves as channels for divine communication rather than autonomous creators, believing their paintings, songs, and stories flowed through them from the spirit world.

Canadian archaeologist Genevieve von Petzinger spent decades cataloging geometric symbols appearing in Ice Age European caves, revealing a sophisticated symbolic system predating formal writing.

Early humans possessed the capacity for writing systems from the beginning but consciously chose not to develop them, viewing writing as corruption of divine communication and communal experience.

Early humans understood their fundamental purpose as making the world more beautiful, imaginative, and celebratory—honoring the divine through creative expression rather than mere survival.

Early humans didn’t conceive of connecting to a distant divine realm because they understood the divine as already present everywhere, requiring harmony rather than connection.