THE HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION
THE MIGRATION
OF SYMBOLS
THE HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION
General Editor C. K. Ogden
The History of Civilization is a landmark in early twentieth Century publishing. The aim of the general editor, C. K. Ogden, was to summarise in one comprehensive synthesis the most recent findings and theories of historians, anthropologists, archaeologists, sociologists and all conscientious students of civilization. The History, which includes titles in the French series LEvolution de VHumanit, was published at a formative time in the development of the social sciences, and during a period of significant historical discoveries.
A list of the titles in the series can be found at the end of this book.
THE WHIRLING LOGS CELESTIAL SWASTIKA OF NAVAHO RED INDIANS.
The outer curving figure is the rainbow goddess.
(From Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol. VI.)
[ front.
First published in 1926 by Routledge, Trench, Trubner
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British Cataloguing in Publication Data
ISBN 978-0-415-15567-0 (hbk)
ISBN 978-0-415-60481-9 (pbk)
ISBN Pre-history (12 volume set):978-0-415-15611-0
ISBN History of Civilization (50 volume set): 978-0-415-14380-6
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this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the
original may be apparent
W HEN Polybius (xxxi, 3) tells us of the international games which Antiochus Epiphanes instituted at Daphne (B.C. 165), as a rival attraction to the Macedonian games of Aemilius JPaulus, the Roman pro-consul, he enters into detaih regarding the picturesque procession of thousands of warriors armed in Roman fashion, and of thousands of Mysians, Gilicians, Thrac-ians, and Oalati (Celts), and goes on to say :
The number of images of gods it is impossible to tell completely; for the images of every god or demi-god or hero accepted by mankind were carried there, some gilded, and others adorned with gold-embroidered robes, and the myths belonging to each, according to accepted tradition, were represented by the most costly symbols.
The method which I have adopted in this volume in dealing with a number of ancient and widely-distributed symbols, seems not only to be justified but actually called for by Polybiuss explicit -statement which connects symbols with myths and with the gods. Consequently, I have not assumed that the swastika, the spiral, etc., were, even to begin with, entirely meaningless, and that they should be regarded, as some incline to regard them, merely as manifestations of the instinct to decorate alleged to be a characteristic ofman in his savage state . Instead of accepting so hazardous a view, and indulging in theories regardingmental processes(of which so little is really known), and regardingart motifs(as if the ancient peoples had no luck motifs ), I have made search for texts, for myths and for customs which throw light on the problems presented by outstanding designs greatly favoured from an early period by various peoples and over wide areas.
It would appear, when consideration is given to the mental habits of the peoples who favoured certain persisting designs, that we should first endeavour to understand an ancient art before undertaking to analyse it on purely aesthetic groundsthat we should begin with the sources of inspiration rather than with the skill displayed in execution. In this connexion, it cannot be overlooked that all the great ancient arts were rooted in religious and magico-religious beliefs. The art movements of ancient Egypt and ancient Babylonia, for instance, were inspired and promoted by the priests, and cannot be understood without reference to the religions systems of those pioneer civilizations. Even battle-scenes had their religious bearing, for victory was given by the gods. The arts of lesser peoples may not, as are those of Egypt and Babylonia, be rendered articulate in varying degrees by surviving texts, but there are many myths and customs which of themselves, or when viewed in the light of comparative evidence, provide data to emphasize that what some call anart motif was, after all, really aluck motif (a magico-religious symbol), and, further, that we are not justified in insisting on theArt for Arts saketheory even when no direct evidence is available to show whether or not the simplest design had originally a meaning. Two short horizontal lines on the forehead of a Chinese tiger in jade were sufficient to indicate, to the ancient Chinese, that the animal was the divinity of the West. If that were not known, the lines in question would, no doubt, be referred to by some as ornamental. After all, the Christian cross is a verysimpledesign. Yet it means much to Christians.
When we undertake the investigatio7t of the various customs and the associated beliefs ofearly man, we find that, as Professor Breasted so finely says in connexion with the Pyramid Texts of ancient Egypt,they vaguely disclose to us a vanished world of thought and speech. It is difficult to believe tliat early man, whose burial customs were expressions of his beliefs regarding hitman destiny, and whose other customs were similarly invested with meaning, produced art objects and designs which were entirely meaningless to him, especially when we find that he considered it necessary to place them beside, or upon, the dead. It is, further, difficult to believe, in the light of such evidence as is available, that a fewart motifswere repeated for long centuries, and disseminated over wide areas, simply because early mans cesthetic sense hungered for expression. If the aesthetic sense really made so insistence and inevitable an appeal, why, it may be asked, did it ignore many forms of natural beauty, and remain content instead to draw constant refreshment from an exceedingly limited stock of sterile and arbitrary designs ?
Another phase of the problem emerges when we find the same or similar designs in various parts of the world, either as archaeological relics of high civilizations, or still existing among backward peoples. It is frequently asserted in this connexion that a particular design, which is found to have a definite significance in one part of the world, has, or had not necessarily the same meaning in another. But those who argue in this fashion must be reminded that the whole symbols problem cannot be disposed of by urging a hypothesis based on the isolated or partial evidence afforded by a single symbol. It is necessary, where such is possible, that all the available evidence regarding each individual symbol should be collected and examined ; that a symbol should be studied in its chronological aspect irrespective of what particular phase of material culture it may be found to be associated with in recent, or comparatively recent, times ; and that records should be made of the variations of form it may have been given in a single area, as well as in widely-separated areas. The simplest forms, as we find in some instances, are not necessarily the oldest forms. Crude Christian crosses, for instance, are to be seen incised in some Scottish caves, but they are not, of course, the oldest cross symbols that have survived ; nor do they really of themselves afford any indication as to where Christianity had origin.
