That’s why Sapiens rule the world...
Part 2 of the previous edition 'Festivals, Capitalism and Sense of Belonging'
Hello there friends,
Firstly, happy belated Ganesh Chaturthi to everyone who celebrates. I hope you were together with your close ones and had a good time. I was back in Pune, and I celebrated the day with my family.
Later, as I sat down on my desk to write this newsletter I decided against the topic I had in mind and instead thought of writing about this - family, festivals, food & fun. I have talked earlier about how festivals renew our sense of belonging make us realize the importance of family in our lives. As social beings, making and sustaining connections with others is a vital part of our cognitive health, and society, and the people around us influence and contribute to our lives more than we ever fail to grasp.
In fact, as Yuval Noah Harari explains in his book Sapiens, the very foundation of human civilization and progress lies in the fact that we possess the ability to form social relations and come together in huge numbers.
Ants and bees can also work together in huge numbers, but they do so in a very rigid manner and only with close relatives. Wolves and chimpanzees cooperate far more flexibly than ants, but they can do so only with small numbers of other individuals that they know intimately. Sapiens can cooperate in extremely flexible ways with countless numbers of strangers. That’s why Sapiens rule the world, whereas ants eat our leftovers and chimps are locked up in zoos and research laboratories.
We as cosmopolitan beings often question religion, as we should, we are right in pointing out the flaws and inadequacies of institutionalized religion. We are also right in citing Marx and his legendary argument, “religion is the opium of masses”, and seen in this context festivals are a socio-cultural manifestation of backdated dogmas. And in another context festivals are nothing but capitalistic fishnets to get people to spend more.
After all, wasn’t it Coca-Cola that popularised the pot-bellied red Santa Claus that we so love and admire today as a part of their advertisement campaign? Interestingly enough, even Ganesh Chaturthi has a political past. Though Ganesh Utsav was celebrated by people individually in their homes, it was not as magnanimous as it is today. Bal Gangadhar Tilak re-invented the festival for the nationalistic cause of freedom in 1892. “Tilak channelized the patriotic spirit by bringing the household Ganapati out onto the streets of Pune. He was able to bring a feeling of unity among the masses against the British through the festive fervor as opposed to a political gathering that the British would not allow…”
So, if festivals are social creations manipulated by people in power should we not completely get rid of them? I think not. Yes, they are social creations, religion is one of the most powerful myths of human civilization and they have played a crucial role in our progress.
We often take comfort in the fact that humans are superior beings, with greater intellectual capacity, which might be true now but it wasn’t so from the beginning. Our pre-historic predecessors were not any different than chimpanzees, apes, and other social mammals. But around 70,000 years ago owing to a strange unexplained mutation we were able to move beyond our contemporaries in the animal kingdom. According to Harari, we were able to form large networks and develop language for communication after the mutation.
Homo sapiens conquered the world thanks above all to its unique language.
This language became our super-power and changed the face of the Earth forever. We were able to communicate and explain things to each other as no other species could. And most importantly we were able to form stories in our minds, thus giving birth to myths of our own. These myths directly led to where we are today. These myths helped our predecessors to assemble, make meaning and imagine things. We started creating abstract concepts like loyalty to your tribe and rights of individual members in the tribe and come up with things like gods and spirits that distinguished one tribe from the other. The basis of modern statehood, human rights, religion, and everything else.
Every other social animal has the ability to co-operate and form groups, but the problem lies in the fact that there’s a maximum number beyond which healthy co-operation is not possible. Our collective myths helped us in overcoming this problem.
Any large-scale human cooperation — whether a modern state, a medieval church, an ancient city, or an archaic tribe — is rooted in common myths that exist only in people’s collective imagination. Churches are rooted in common religious myths. Two Catholics who have never met can nevertheless go together on crusade or pool funds to build a hospital because they both believe God was incarnated in human flesh and allowed Himself to be crucified to redeem our sins.
Harari goes on to explain how states, judicial systems, etc are all rooted in common myths.
So now we know that religion is not an arbitrary invention of the human mind, it’s a systematic outcome of our cognitive development like every other abstract institution that is part of our reality today. So the history is clear, but what about the present? Why are these myths important today? Precisely for the same reason, they were earlier. They form the basis of human society. They bind us together they help us find meaning in things where exist none.
And at an individual, micro level, it gives us hope and joy. It gives us community and a sense of belonging. Festivals transform the mundane of our lives into something extraordinary, something bigger than ourselves. And in many ways impart purpose to our lives. And as I am growing older I am recognizing and appreciating the beauty of festivals in my life. Perhaps, I may develop a differing stance as I grow older and I hope I do because that is what growing up is all about. As of now, I am grateful that I got to celebrate Chaturthi with my family and I am eagerly looking forward to Diwali.
What I was Reading this Week?
Prativa Mohapatra becomes the first woman to lead Adobe India.
Kanye West and the emotional power of home.
Thank you so much for reading till the end. Do let me know if you have any suggestions for things I should talk about ahead.
You can reach out to me directly on my Instagram @pawan_rochwani.
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