Page 135 - Communication and the Evolution of Society

112 Communication and Evolution of Society

world-view, assured themselves of a common cosmogonic origin.
On the other hand, the personal identity of the individual de-
veloped through identification with a tribal group, which was
in turn perceived as part of a nature interpreted in interaction
categories. As social reality was not yet clearly distinguished from
natural reality, the boundaries of the social world merged into
those of the world in general.?* Without clearly defined bound-
aries of the social system there was no natural or social environ-
ment in the strict sense; contacts with alien tribes were interpreted
in accord with the familiar kinship connection. On the other hand,
encounters with civilizations that (unlike alien tribes) could no
longer be assimilated to their own world represented a danger
for the collective identity of societies organized along kinship
lines (independently of the real danger of colonial conquest) .”*
The transition to soczetzes organized through a state required
the relativization of tribal identities and the construction of a
more abstract identity that no longer based the membership of
individuals on common descent but on belonging in common to
a territorial organization. This took place first through identifica-
tion with the figure of a ruler who could claim a close connection
and privileged access to the mythological originary powers. In the
framework of mythological world views the integration of dif-
ferent tribal traditions was accomplished through a large-scale,
syncretistic expansion of the world of the gods—a solution that
proved to be rather unstable. For this reason, imperially de-
veloped civilizations had to secure their collective identity in a
way that presupposed a break with mythological thought. The
universalistic world interpretations of the great founders of re-
ligions and of the great philosophers grounded a commonality of
conviction mediated through a teaching tradition and permitting
only abstract objects of identification. As members of universal
communities of faith, citizens could recognize their ruler and the
order represented by him so long as it was possible to render
political domination plausible in some sense as the legacy of an
order of the world and of salvation that was believed in and
posited absolutely.
In contrast to archaic tribal societies, the great empires had to
demarcate themselves from a desocialized outer nature as well as