Original Research

Reframing hunting, gathering, tool-making and art, as expressions of evolution of consciousness as depicted in Jean Gebser’s ‘the ever-present origin’

Fritz N. Ilongo
HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies | Vol 73, No 3 | a4710 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v73i3.4710 | © 2017 Fritz N. Ilongo | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 20 June 2017 | Published: 30 November 2017

About the author(s)

Fritz N. Ilongo, Department of Theology and Religious Studies, National University of Lesotho, Lesotho

Abstract

This article explores the evolution of consciousness as directly correlated to hunting, gathering, tool-making and art. The methodology is qualitative theoretical analyses, articulated around Jean Gebser’s seminal work, The Ever-Present Origin. Hunting and gathering are expressions of a magical, unitary, ‘self-dissolving’ consciousness. Tool-making on the other hand is depicted as evolving from a mythical consciousness of duality, polarity, symbolism and a state of being qualified by ‘crystallisation of the I’. Lastly, art is a function of a consciousness of ‘self-transcendence’, ‘I and I’, idealisation and a transpersonal state of being. The article concludes by positing that hunting, gathering, tool-making and art can be reframed as ‘forms of the movement of consciousness’.

Keywords

reframing; archaic; magical; mythical; mental; integral structures

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