I'm glad to be chatting again!<br>What were the
'consequent' pages you were reading Geoff? - Do let us know
how your reading makes sense to you,
personally.<br>Bo:I understand your view of language as "a leap from
one reality into another" and see the communication
of abstract ideas through language of key importance
in human evolution from the day-to-day, instinctual
living of animals to being more conscious beings capable
of seeing their actions and lives outside their
immediate physical surroundings.<br>Its hard to know what
started first, and I imagine a sort of gradual refinement
anyway - from living with and being aware of seasons and
the cycles of life and death and rejuvenation in
plants and animals through refining human grunts to
represent the abstract thoughts of life and death to form
the abstract concept and mental models.<br>You said
"Language is intangible, yet more real than the real thing
and when it entered existence* "death" became a
reality and the human beings started burial ceremonies* -
remember the RITUAL chapter in Lila!"<br>**Do give
details; and please remind me which is the 'ritual'
chapter in Lila, and how you see it relating to
Death.<br>Fascinating stuff! - It comes as no surprise that traces of
language and death artefacts are found at the same time.
The abstract notion of TIME is only accessible
through utilising language, and this central concept
gives reality to the notions of past, present and
future which in turn make DEATH an important event.Yes
humans were also immortal once, like animals still are
today! (as you rightly commented). We 'descended from
the garden of eden' (and paradise?) once the idea of
linear time took hold in human culture. With the concept
of one-directional, not cyclical reality, events
were assembled into a finite chain, called THE PAST.
For example, through story telling of mothers' and
fathers' lives, linking a person through generations
backwards, putting the individual in a fixed place in the
chain of time, rather than being an unconscious part of
'the great wheel' of life where each life is just part
of the great, repeating round of existence. Tracking
a 'history' through recounting the names and events
of ancestors' lives meant each individual's life
could hold special meaning, and we can imagine that
those who lived special lives, would be marked with
burial ceremonies accordingly.