Holiday Spirit - Part Two

We extend this festive outlook now to the rest of the coming year…

Holiday Spirit - Part One

    As we celebrate this period of good will towards man, let us all take a moment to reflect on the similarity of the different holidays and realise we aren't as different as the evening news tries to tell us we are.  Each holiday is based in the hope for a better future - just the sentiment of the Winter Solstice.

The Christmas season

All,
    Please be so kind as to forgive me the coming weeks as life is asking a bit more than I can deliver.

Thanks!

Time and Patience: the Most Powerful Warriors. Part Three

    The nexus of astronomy and architecture is called archaeoastronomy and in Chaco Canyon, NM it is manifested in three predominant ways.  One of these is in front-facing South/Southeast (S/SE) orientated structures - we will discuss the other ways in future instalments of this topic.

Pueblo Pintado a S/SE orientated structure (~160 degrees)
(Author's collection. Copyright 2019)

    Buildings with S/SE orientation are well documented back to Basketmaker III pit houses (400-700AD) - well before the earliest great houses - and continued to be built through the middle of the Pueblo I Period (700-850AD).  Archaeological surveys find that the orientation azimuths range from 151 to 161degrees and this S/SE orientation was consistently applied to Chacoan architecture for 700 years (450-1140AD).  The fact that this orientation doesn’t deviate with latitudinal change suggests that it wasn’t based on direct regional celestial observation.  Additionally, the area where this S/SE orientation dominates is too large for a common-to-all terrain feature which could insinuate this azimuth on the Chacoan psyche. 

    With this in mind, I should surmise this orientation was culturally important to  Chacoans for reasons that are not readily clear and the consistent application of this azimuth over centuries also indicates the employment of some physical means.  

    There exists an ethno-archaeological basis for this cultural importance amongst the telling of Hopi migration stories about the Snake Clan which migrated from the Navajo Mountain region to the Black Mesa region of today’s Arizona - a heading of approximately 165 degrees.  A version of this migration story seems to be recounted by Cosmos Mindeleff in 1891.  

    ”…A brilliant star arose in the southeast, which would shine for a while and then disappear.  The old men said, ‘Beneath that star there must be people’, so they determined to travel towards it.  They cut a staff and set it in the ground and watched until the star reached its top, then they started and traveled as long as the star shone; when it disappeared they halted…sometimes many years elapsed before it appeared again.  When this occurred, our people built houses during their halt; they built both round and square houses…They waited until the star came to the top of the staff again, then they moved on.”

Mesoamerican religious staff from Teotihuacan, Mexico (circa 70AD)
(Author's collection. Copyright 2019)

The veracity of this statement is borne through the statement concerning housing - “they built both round and square houses”.  Archaeological proof exists all over the southwest today of pit houses like this from the Basketmaker periods.  Today we have no reason to believe that this doesn’t extend to the means of navigation employed as well.  They speak of a simple cut staff - NOT a cross-member or cross-staff as posited by JM Malville in his excellent 2011 paper.  To date there have been found multitudes of staffs and religious sceptres in Chacoan tombs throughout the region (as well as across Mesoamerica) and these staffs could easily be symbolic of the Gnomon navigational device described in Part two. 

    The ease of reproducing this bearing with a gnomon used as a carpenter’s square fulfils our hypothesis for a construction device used to reproduce this S/SE orientation.  Simultaneously, the employment of this simple tool, in this configuration, would negate the archaeological “smoking gun” that scholars are looking for to corroborate this theory.  The answer is hiding in plain sight, we just don’t know what we are looking at.

    All native American tribes extant demonstrate great reverence for their ancestors and there is no conflicting evidence in the case of Ancestral Puebloans.  If we couple that with the verifiable evidence from their migration myths, it isn’t unrealistic to extrapolate our hypothesis here that the south/southeast manifestation in archaeoastronomy in and around the Chacoan world was based on ancestral veneration.  In a further extrapolation, I posit the use of a simple astronomical tool - in use around the world for centuries prior - as a means of building those structures and the proof is in museums throughout the American Southwest labeled “Chacoan religious staff”.

Pueblo Bonito from the inside.  Originally S/SE orientated (~160degrees), later altered to North/South.
(Author's collection. Copyright 2019) 

Time and Patience, the Most Powerful Warriors. Part Two

    While writing notes on southeast orientation and Cardinal points, I realised that I must address some basic facts and ideas as a precursor to understanding the Chacoan astronomy/architecture nexus.  
    Time in our world is created by two activities; the spinning of the Earth and the Earth’s rotation around the Sun.  Due to the former we have sunrise and sunset (the time of day) and from the latter we enjoy the change of seasons (the time of year).  Through these two types of time, the sun weaves its way across our skies in specific, observable patterns and it was these patterns and conditions which were closely observed by the ancestral Puebloans and became intrinsic to their very existence.

    Through the migration vignette from part one we see that these ancients understood the concept of direction, even if they didn’t have a word for azimuth, declination or Altitude.  As proof today, we have their repeated use of specific directions in their architecture over centuries of building.  This could have been easily accomplished through the use of a gnomon.  The gnomon is a simple tool for determining direction/time through observation of the sun’s movement and was first developed in Babylon though examples exist in the ancient world from China to Peru.

    A gnomon is built by placing a straight stick vertically in level ground and marking the location of the stick’s shadow on the ground through the course of the day.  This will quickly reveal the Cardinal directions and the device is eerily similar to the star tracking “compass” stick described in our migration myth from part one.  With a little ingenuity, this device can be a mobile compass as well.  To employ it one has to first determine the desired direction of travel.  Runners are then sent towards that direction and in the opposite.  These runners merely determine a straight line path through the gnomon itself and begin movement in the desired direction - always traveling in three parties and always re-evaluating their direction using the previous two points and terrain references prior to advancing.  If the party becomes lost or unsure, they merely stop for a day, set up the gnomon, verify the directions and begin again.

North wall of Aztec West great house which is aligned with summer solstice sunrise
(Author's collection. copyright 2019)

    Through close observation over time, a gnomon can also determine the azimuth of the equinoxes and the solstices.  When this began to happen, our ancestral Puebloans were determining annual calendars through the sun’s predictable nature.  Every March and September 21, the Sun rises and sets on the East-West meridian and its declination (distance from the Equator to the Poles measured in degrees) is 0 out of a possible 90 degrees.  Additionally, the gnomon can track the sun’s behaviour through its Winter and Summer Solstice declinations which are a positive or negative 23.5 degrees depending on the time of year.   The gnomon can also determine the altitude of the sun, track the Moon's activity through the full moon cycle and is a carpenter's square.  When this level of expertise is reached, the gnomon is a formidable weapon for nation building.  Horizon calendars can be created and future plans can be made on a grand scale.  Those grand scale plans can be employed to serve specific purposes which can, ultimately, manipulate public opinion and ideals.  

    When utilised in this fashion, our gnomon ceases to be a simple stick in the ground and becomes a sceptre of national power.  In this simple devise lies the power to legitimise rulers by “commanding the heavens” and thus, compel subjects to build organised cosmic cities which create an infrastructure based on that cyclic nature.   Their hard work is rewarded by security, well-planned festivals and markets centred around these cosmic events which stabilise lifestyles, build a vibrant economy and, ultimately, come to define them as a culture.

Specific events tied to an horizon calendar providing anticipatory warning for festival preparation.   (Author's composition)

  

Time and Patience: the Most Powerful Warriors. Part One

    It has only been in the last 75 years that we have made time a commodity by wearing wrist watches.  Prior to that, those who could afford to wore pocket watches, cumbersome yet useful items once the owner modified his clothing to accommodate storage.  Before these inventions, time was measured in days or months and was seen as an enabler instead of our present day view of time as an external, unseen force showing us our limitations and failures.

    A thousand years ago in the Four Corners Region of the American southwest, time was experienced as a facilitator and an all-encompassing personal encounter.  From the very beginning, these ancient ones were in search of time itself - their mythology stories available to us today claim that in the time after entering this world and before they occupied Chaco Canyon, the Ancestral Puebloans were in a constant state of migration.  They moved in a south by southeastern direction using wooden staffs to measure their travel against a certain star that was only visible at certain times of the year.  Finally, when they reached Chaco Canyon they found a physical manifestation of time on earth.  

Penasco Blanco looking East into Chaco Canyon (Author's Collection, copyright 2019)

    Only recently with our computers and space-based telescopes have we determined what these stone-aged people knew with sticks and naked-eye star-gazing: Chaco Canyon is a calendrical station which is naturally aligned for calculating the 19 year lunar cycle.  To confirm (and ultimately  celebrate) this, Chacoans built redundant observatories for anticipating multiple astronomical dates which were important to them, their religion and their way of life.  Simultaneously, they developed their culture around physical infrastructure that re-enforced their connection to the cosmos.

PuebloBonito from Northern heights (Author's collection, copyright 2019)

    This time-consuming effort required patience in order to be effective.  Patience on a macro scale can be called commitment and it was this commitment to pursue a common vision that fuelled the Chacoan culture through the vicissitudes of the ages and the ravages of environmental difficulties.  During these centuries, they perfected their building techniques and built their concept of time into almost every great house extant as well as their extensive network of roads.  Along the way, Ancestral Puebloans developed a thriving system of “international commerce” by importing commodities that buttressed their religious ceremonies and, ultimately, supported their experience of time.

    In the end, the same patience required to build this manifestation of time undoubtedly had a great deal to do with the abandonment of their monuments because they understood the difficulties associated with building their world as opposed to existing in it.  It was their commitment to this concept of time which prompted them to walk away from their centuries of hard work before they were buried by it. 

 Kin Kletso Masonry (Author's collection, copyright 2019)

Time and Tides

Yes, I just returned to the United States with a plethora of topics and images to write about yet, I find myself overcome by the enormity of the tasks I neglected while traveling.

Forgive me.

War by Other Means, Part Three

    At the northern end of the Chihuahuan Corridor, Chacoans were developing their great house culture and they had also begun inter-pueblo integration between their outlying communities.  By 1150, the increased complexity of society on both ends of the Chihuahua Corridor created new markets and new production centres.  

Tri-walled Kiva at Pueblo del Arroyo, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. (Author's collection copyright 2019)

    Of course, the increased trade could have had a synergistic effect on social development - especially within the elite classes.  Because of this situation, Casas Grandes, previously an outpost along the Chihuahua Corridor, grew in size and came into direct competition with the Hohokam society’s shell trade.  This shorter and more direct trade route, coupled with new Mesoamerican metallurgical techniques in copper and advances in aviculture practices seem to have sounded the death knell for Hohokam hegemony.  The Chalchihuites provided luxury goods in quantities and at delivery speeds that the Hohokam could not match.  By this time evidence shows Hohokam culture had retreated from its advance posts like Winona and Stony Canyon to their strongholds of Papaguería, the Gila-Salt and Tucson Basins while evidence of Mesoamerica culture amongst the Hohokam diminished.

Homol'ovi Ruins, Winslow, Arizona. (Author's collection. Copyright 2019)

    So it is evident through our discussion here that, prior to 1150 AD, the majority of Chacoan/Mogollon trade conducted with Mesoamerica passed through a Hohokam middleman who absorbed most of the Mesoamerica culture while passing along only the deliverables which is in-line with today’s concept of a middleman marking up any re-sell goods.  Additionally, timelines corroborate the theory that the rise of the Chalchihuites in Zape broke the Hohokam trade monopoly  and forced their retreat from Chacoan western borderlands.  Simultaneously, the timeline reveals that this more direct contact with Mesoamerica culture brought about a rapid decline in Chacoan/Mogollon culture between 950 and 1250 AD.  

Original Ceiling at Aztec Ruins, Aztec, New Mexico. (Author's collection. Copyright 2019)

War by Other Means, Part two

    Beginning in 300 BC, the Hohokam tribes in today’s United States’ state of Arizona were heavily invested in the shell trade with Chacoan and Mogollon tribes.  To the extent that in the Papaguería area of today’s Tohono O’odham National Reservation, there is evidence of a large habitation site dedicated to the production and export of shells.  The period of 550-1150 AD saw the zenith of Mesoamerican goods finding their way into Hohokam culture via the Sonoran Corridor and it was in this time of increased Mesoamerica contact that Hohokam shell work achieved its highest artistic level.  As with trade, so too comes culture and Hohokam society seems to have absorbed a number of Mesoamerican traits: platform mounds and ball courts, to name a few.  In fact, by 600 AD there were even ball courts located at the remote Hohokam sites of Winona and Stony Canyon (outposts along the western birder of Chacoan territory).  

Ball Court Hoop, Anthropology Museum, Mexico City (Author's collection. copyright 2019)

Due to their out-lying locations, it is surmised that these two sites were actually trading posts due to their proximity to Chacoan/Mogollon settlements.  Commerce activity in this region was very dynamic during this entire period and shouldn’t be thought of as locked containers passing customs checks with end user certificates for verification or even clipboards with inventory lists received via Email.  It was more like the old town five and dime store owner who was aware of all facets of inventory and supply/demand in his head because he was familiar with every nuance of change that his town and customers experienced.  

                          

Ball court marker, Teotihuacan (Author's collection. copyright 2019)

Trade continued like this for a long time but in about 1,000 AD things began to change; that is when social complexity changed in the Sinaloa region of today’s Mexico: the southern end of the Chihuahua Corridor.  The Chalchihuites were the northern most representatives of Mesoamerica culture and between 950 and 1150 AD their seat of power was the city of Zape in northern Durango.

Ball court hoops from Teotihuacan, Anthropology Museum, Mexico City (Author's collection. copyright 2019)

War by Other Means, Part One

    Mesoamerica is a word that conjures images in the minds of westerners.  Images of colourfully decorated priests cutting the hearts out of victims atop perfectly built stone temples, the victims' blood pouring into cups via specially prepared troughs.  Images of a society girded for war while perfecting their concepts of astronomy and time and images of pyramids mysteriously abandoned for all time by their creators. 

Native dancer, Mexico City, Mexico (Author's collection,  copyright 2019)

Yet the truth is that the word is a mis-nomer.  It leads the listener to think of a single place, society or culture but Mesoamerica was anything but that.  For millennia, the region, which stretches from modern day Mexico to Costa Rica, was comprised of a conglomeration of city-states and a few empires, each of which rose and fell like all the other societies before and after them.  They traded far and wide with as many other tribes as possible but fighting amongst them was more often than not the norm.  Mayan, Olmec, Toltec, Chalchihuites, Mixtec, Zapotec and Teotihuacan to name a few, there were some who’s names aren’t even known.  One thing that is known is that commerce was a large part of each of these better known societies and commerce is  always dependent upon access to trade routes.  

Jackson Step, part of the Chacoan road system (Author's collection copyright 2019)

Two of those routes led from modern-day northwest Mexico into modern-day southwest United States.  The Hohokam Society of today’s American state of Arizona sat at the northern end of the Sonoran Corridor which ran along the Sonoran Coast and linked them to their suppliers, the Guasave culture.  The Ancestral-Puebloans (of Chaco Canyon) and the Mogollons sat at the northern end of the Chihuahua Corridor which wound along the eastern slopes of the Sierra Madre mountain range.  Each of these corridors allowed for the diffusion of Mesoamerica goods (and culture) to flow into the southwest.  Close examination of these circumstances reveals that ancient trade agreements were just as fragile as they are today and that trade wars were just as nasty then as they are now. 

Loose Ends, Part Two

    During the Republic's early days, Trotsky served as the People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs then the Founder and Commander of the Red Army by serving as the People's Commissar of Military and Naval Affairs.  As such, he was a major figure in the civil war victory.  

Trotsky office where he was mudered. (Author's collection. copyright 2019)

    After Lenin’s death, Trotsky led the failed struggle of opposition against the rise of Joseph Stalin and his ever increasing bureaucracy.  He was removed from the Politburo and the Central Committee, expelled from the Communist Party and finally, exiled.  Despite this he continued to oppose Stalin's bureaucracy at the fourth Communist International (COMINTERN).  Trotsky's actions put him on Stalin's bad side and set him on a global odyssey seeking political asylum, being repeatedly turned away by western government’s.  Eventually, he ended up in Mexico City and agreed to acceptable terms with the government there about the scope of his political activities.  Trotsky was a theorist and prolific writer, his ideas were the basis for a Marxist school of thought called Trotskyism and he was writing a "tell all" on Stalin.   To say the least, this was not to Stalin's liking and he decided to act. 

    In 1940, Stalin sent a mole to assassinate Trotsky.  By Stalin’s thinking, the world could never know the truth about him and the party’s activities - the only version of the truth was his and there could be no dissent.  So, on the afternoon of August 20, 1940 in the Mexico City neighbourhood of Coyoacán, a trusted member of Trotsky’s inner-circle entered his house under the pretence of giving him a pen.  Once alone with Trotsky in his office, Ramón Mercador hit Trotsky in the head with an ice axe.  Trotsky died later in hospital and Mercador, the assassin, would spend 20 years in prison.  Stalin went on to exterminate Trotsky's family left in Russia, including his children, and re-write Soviet history without a mention of one of its greatest architects.

Mexican authorities with ice axe (Author's collection)

    It would be decades before the world began to see the evil Stalin represented and even more decades before the world understood that communism was a failed experiment.  Yet today, in the United States, the greatest democratic nation in the world,  Politicians are openly calling for the violation of that nation's constitution in order to place their constituents in mortal danger, while they try to re-create this experiment.  Lev Trotsky's story should prove as a cautionary tale to these would-be courtiers to the ruinous and rapacious exercise that is communism.

Leon Trotsky's internment, Mexico City. (Author's Collection, copyright 2019)

Loose Ends, Part One

    Mexico City is known for many things - especially their upcoming annual celebration of Día de Muertos, but the city’s involvement in the closing chapter of the Bolshevik Revolution is little known.  It was on a sticky afternoon in August of 1940 in the now stylish borough of Coyoacán that the Bolshevik Revolution wrote its final note as the people’s rebellion.  

 Lev Davidovich Bronstein, AKA Leon Trotsky (Author's collection)

     Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky had built the Russian Revolution to empower the Russian people to rise up against their oppressive Monarch, Tsar Nicholas II but their overall idea was to create a system for world-wide revolution - throwing off the "oppressive" cloak of capitalism and empowering the people.  Though the Bolsheviks did a good job of harnessing some of the rampant public discontent extant in Russia at the time, there were many groups actively engaged in subversion in and around St. Petersburg in 1917 and Leon Trotsky was a leader within one of those socialist/communist groups, the  Menshevik’s.  Because of mounting turmoil, Tsar Nicholas abdicated in March of 1917 and an interim government was set up to try and repair the nation’s economy and social unrest all while fighting World War I.  The spark of public agitation was fanned to flames by groups like the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks but it wasn’t until the Germans freed Vladimir Ilyich Lenin from one of their prisons and put him on a train back to St. Petersburg that things began to really heat up.  Just before the October revolution, Trotsky joined the Bolshevik party and was an immediate "insider" who went on to be one of the original seven on the first Politburo which led and directed the Bolshevik revolution. From the October revolution, widespread pandemonium ensued and it was obvious that the Bolsheviks didn’t stand a chance of leading Russia into communism.  The Bolsheviks were ardent writers and loquacious orators but their ability to create useful policy AND put it into place was another thing all together and yet, somehow, they survived.

Secretary office in the house of Trotsky, Mexico City. (Author's Collection, copyright 2019)

    To make a long story short, Russia made a separate peace with Germany, a civil war ensued and countless Russian innocents were murdered while inept policies were implemented and overturned repeatedly and the Bolsheviks blamed everyone but themselves for their failures.  As these failures became apparent, the Soviets (the new name for the Bolsheviks) began to rule the people more harshly.  Questions were met with beatings and dissent with bullets.  During all of this, Trotsky continued to rise through the party ranks.

Trotsky's desk, where he died. (Author's collection. copyright  2019)

Globalism in the American Southwest

    We are not the first culture to have and rely upon international trade.  If we feel that way, perhaps it’s because we coined the term “globalism” to reflect our connected global marketplace.  Unfortunately, that is the only contribution we made to global trade.  The spice roads connected China and Europe via Persia and India for thousands of years before an unknown Venetian sailor in a Genoese prison recounted his travels to the East.

    Cultures are only the sum of their societal input regardless of how diverse they may be.  Life in the Roman Empire was completely different depending on whether you were in Gaul or in Palestine but it was Roman life none-the-less.

Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, USA (Author's Collection. Copyright 2015)

    Perhaps this overview should be applied to the Ancestral Puebloans.  In an attempt to explain the chasm of unknowns associated with their history, today’s scholars are trying to invent their own “Theory of Everything”.  Sadly, they are precluding obvious and significant facts in order to do it.  The largest fact is that the Chaco World conducted significant, long-distance trade not only with their contemporary societies, but also with Mesoamerica and there is evidence of even wider commercial circles.  These Ancestral Puebloans had contact with many external societies and being highly adaptable people, they traded for different goods from different regions: Sea shells from the West Coast, Macaws and cacao from Mesoamerica and copper ornaments which may have come from The midwest state of Missouri in today’s United States.  As we do today, Chacoans used what they could, acquired what they needed and tried to leave a better world for their children.  So, when studying a culture that provides no eye-witnesses and only limited recorded resources, we must be careful not to be fooled by the facts.  Because of this situation of limited resources, we rely heavily upon archaeology and, to a lesser degree, the oral traditions of today’s Puebloan tribes and it is imperative that we do not use any single-source of input if we hope to arrive at a viable conclusion. 

Kin Klizhin Tower Kiva, Kin Klizhin Outlier, New Mexico, USA (Author's Collection. Copyright 2015)

    The conclusion is that Chaco Canyon was, for centuries, a vibrant culture diffused throughout the Four-Corners Region of today’s United States that had contact with their contemporary cultures both near and far.  The level of this contact differed over the centuries but left its indelible mark on Chacoan Culture for the rest of time.  Chacoans assimilated many cultural traditions, both good and bad, and, in the end, all these forces - internal, external, cultural, socio-political and environmental - forced Ancestral Puebloans to abandon their homes and disappear into time.

Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, USA (Author's Collection. Copyright 2015)

Caught up in the Rush

    The temperature of the light is quite different in America than in Egypt but that is hard to see from my basement.  I've been stuck here since my return, processing images and accounting for finances.  That is the reason I have no entry for this week and I am making excuses instead of interesting analogies.
    Forgive me, my trespasses.

Swirling Clarity (Author's Collection copyright 2018)

Passage of Time

This week I have had no time to look at the history of anything as I’ve been too busy walking through the history of Egypt.  Please enjoy these images in lieu of any words.

Pyramids of Giza (from Author's Collection. Copyright 2019)

Pyramids of Giza (Author's Collection. Copyright 2019)

Pyramids of Giza (Author's Collection. Copyright 2019)

Saqqara Pyramid: the oldest building in the world (Author's Collection.  Copyright 2019)

Necropolis of Saqqara (Author's Collection. Copyright 2019)

Pyramid of Unas at Saqqara (Author's Collection. Copyright 2019)

Hieroglyphs inside Pyramid of Unas (Author's Collection. Copyright 2019)

Genetic Encoding, Part Two of Two

  In fact, in Egyptian history it is rare to find changes that were instigated by the masses.  External factors were almost always coming to bear on the people of this great country and those factors were typically “top down” changes.  

Cario in the morning
(Author's Collection, copyright 2019)

Adjusting to these changes was for them to deal with as leaders are rarely concerned with (and quite often unaware) of the daily difficulties that are enacted when they flippantly decide to do something.  Self-righteous Pharaohs, impetuous rulers, colonial oversight and exploitation by empires are but some of the ancient examples of difficulties that the average Egyptian had to contend with but the recent past isn’t any better.

Fast Food in Cairo's Market
(Author's Collection, copyright 2019)

    Recent political turmoil has built upon decades of questionable national level decisions which have created a poor educational system and created mass poverty (average annual income is 6,700USD).  A by-product of this situation is growing sectarian violence and increasing economic instability- the uneducated can’t be expected to make informed decisions or develop insightful philosophical points of view.  

Streets of Imbabah
(Author's Collection, copyright 2019)

In response, the Egyptian Government recently de-valued their currency (Egyptian Pound) and made severe cuts to public subsidisation/aide programs.  This was all in an effort to qualify for a large loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which the Egyptian Government hopes will stimulate the economy before the more impoverished segment of society is crushed.  Does Egypt (or the world) really need another lane in the Suez Canal?

  

  

Egyptian Museum Entrance
(Author's Collection, copyright 2019)

Through all of this, as they have for millennia, Egyptians continue to adjust and compensate for the external factors pressing on their efforts for a better tomorrow.  Without considering all these historical factors, Egyptians live their lives and try to adapt to the radically changing socio-political and economic landscape; doing the best they can before the next change is forced upon them without their consent.  As though adaptation and adjustment have been imprinted in their genetic code.

    

Genetic Encoding. Part one of two

    250,000 BC is the earliest date of human activity in the area we now call Egypt and by 3,100 BC, legend tells us a Pharaoh by the name of Narmer had united the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the first cataract (present day Aswan).  For the inhabitants of this region, they have changed and adapted so many times that they are unaware of their innate ability to compensate for the inconsistencies of others.  

    

Egyptian Hieroglyphs, Egyptian Museum (Author's collection copyright 2019)

    During our 247,000 year interval between the above dates Africa became victim of climate change and the rich savannahs became arid, forcing the nomads living there to migrate closer to the Nile River.  Rains further south ensured that the Nile flooded annually - like clockwork - and when those floodwaters tapered off the soil of the surrounding countryside was enriched by silt and soils from all over eastern Africa.  This presented the opportunity to farm and Egyptians don’t hesitate to capitalise on something good.  Sadly, one must take the good with the bad in life and social order came along with farming and Pharaoh placed himself at the top- as all leaders do - and the farmers at the bottom.  Pharaoh himself is credited with establishing social order but the claim is buttressed by archaeological evidence from 3000 BC (circa).

    

Pyramids of Giza(Author's Collection, copyright 2019)

This simple restructuring forced many changes on the population of ancient Egypt but nature did too and the flood period provided a natural respite for farmers which Pharaoh most likely capitalised on by using them as unskilled labour supporting his engineers and architects in building his elaborate infrastructure.  What a summer job, building those magnificent pyramids and monuments, even if you are just hauling baskets full of rubble.  The chaos caused through the ensuing years by multiple changes to the physical location of the Egyptian capital, not to mention adjustments and refinements to the state religions must have had a disorienting effect on the populace but they kept working, trying to make a better tomorrow for them and their families.

A Code to Live By

    Our western traditions in the last 50 years have left something to be desired with regard to how we comport ourselves.  In the last twenty years it seems that people are more concerned with how they look than how they really are.  As proof, steal a glance at someone’s credit card bill next time you have a chance: 85% chance says it is disproportionately high indicating they are living outside their means.   I’ve even heard words like tradition and honour used as punchlines to jokes recently, though no one was ever laughing once I was done with the comedian.

 (Author's Collection. Copyright 2018)

    As a child, cowboy and samurai movies were our favourites because everyone knew what to expect, which means they had a code requiring they act in a certain manner.  While that was just Hollywood, these actions were based on a real code of honour that existed for a long time and allowed the world to function in a manner that imparted balance.  Historically, the warrior class has transcended cultures: the Knights of Europe could identify with the Persian cataphracts and both would have understood the code of Bushido embodied by the Japanese Samurai (attendant), and later, Bushi (warrior) class.

    From 1639 to 1854 AD, Japan employed the policy of sakoku (national isolation).  This was their response to dampen the myriad external pressures exerted on Japan while the Shogun consolidated his hold over the island.  This produced many peculiarities which make their culture so unique, of which, Bushido (the way of the warrior) is but one part.  An administrative restructuring under the Tokugawa Regime saw the Samurai removed from their rural landholdings and placed closer to their lord’s precincts.  Now being paid in rice instead of having to farm for their income, the Bushi found themselves very idle in their daily requirements.  This created the opportunity for a professional class of warrior never seen before: culminating in a daily regimen dedicated to the cultivation of all things martial.  The underlying influence exerted by Zen Buddhism created a thirst for perfection in all aspects of life for the warrior class of Japan and this can be seen today in the minute details associated with many of their martial arts.  Whether drawing a sword or flipping an opponent, the determination to emulate the Buddha in his quest for perfection permeated their daily lives and bled over into their efforts to pour tea or serenely sit while contemplating the world.

     This entire system was only attained through a concerted effort to codify and institutionalise the traditional practice of selected philosophies which, over the centuries, became cultural norm.  Ultimately, it was this cultural norm that empowered the feudal way of life and acquired a level of national discipline that would enable japan to adapt to the modern world so quickly.  

    It is the presence of a code of honour that is so lacking in modern society and which will ultimately be the basis for the ruination of humanity.  One must stand for something or agree to fall for everything.

 (Author's Collection. Copyright 2017)