The Nomadic Alternative – Page 159

of pagan Rome. At this time Cronos the old immortal was thought to return to earth, reviving, if only for an instant, the idyllic days of the Golden Age. Social barriers came down in a round of orgiastic gluttony. Masters served their slaves at table. In some British regiments officers serve the ranks at table for Christmas dinner.

What is the underlying function behind this ritualized give and take? As we saw, the human mind is a metaphor maker. It takes bearings on the objects of its experience to reaffirm the identity of an individual or its people. Studies of totemism have emphasized how archaic peoples use animals to think with. A tribal clan names itself after a 'totemic' animal or bird, and by this process of identification distinguishes itself from other named clans. The Ojibwa Indians of Canada, among whom the practice of totemism was first observed, comprised five clans - the Catfish People, the Crane People, the Loon People, the Bear People and the Marten People - each a distinct entity of related kinsmen who might not marry among each other without incurring incest.

Similarly the brain also uses intrinsically useless things to think with. It attaches to an inert thing a number of attributes that may be historic, emotional, aesthetic or practical. But whereas a totemic animal is wild and unalterable, a craftsman can impress a projection of his own personality onto inert matter. And since the scrutiny and handling of things is essential to the formation of linguistic concepts and ideas, man-made objects are a projection of human intelligence and values; though the things of one society may appear meaningless to those outside it. From earliest childhood a man absorbs the style of things manufactured and decorated by his own people. When he handles an object afresh, he automatically re-establishes his own place in society. The abrasion of devotion imparts to a sacred object a quality no amount of mechanical polishing can imitate. Its surface becomes alive with feeling and through human contact acquires a personality and vitality of its own.

"It's the thought that counts." When someone wants to show friendship to another, he or she gives a valued thing. The gift of