ISSUE: 14 OCTOBER 2001

The Paradise Paradigm

by
Dr Ong Boon Lay
Department of Architecture
National University of Singapore

Abstract
The paradise paradigm proposes that human civilization began as a consequence of finding an ecologically rich and supportive environment and recognizing its value. However, human occupation of such ecosystems often ended in failure of the ecosystem and led to the development of nomadic tribes. Over time, however, humans learnt enough about nature to begin to live in harmony with it. Such knowledge were largely sanctified through the development of religion and religious beliefs and help to explain both the importance of religion in pre-scientific societies and the close relationship between religion and the organization of early societies.

This paper details the paradise paradigm in greater detail and draws some tentative conclusions about modern 20^th century society.

The first humans walked the earth some 2 million years ago. In contrast, the earliest archaeological evidence of cities is dated some 5000 years ago, a negligible length of time in archaeological terms. Within the approximations of archaeological time, we may say that there was a two million-year gap between the time when the first humans walked on this planet and our first archaeological evidence of civilization. By all accounts, this emergence of cities and of civilization seems sudden, almost unaccountably so. What happened during that time?

Even from our scant archaeological records, our prehistoric ancestors were not idle during the period between the first emergence of the human species and the first signs of civilization. The usefulness of fire was discovered over 1 million years ago and by that time, humans had evolved ethnic and cultural differences in their weapons, tools and art (Leakey 1994). As a species, we were so hardy that we were able to spread from Africa as far north as Britain, as far east as Japan and as far south as Borneo more than 1 million years ago. Ancestors to the modern Australian aborigines built boats that could cross 70 km of sea to reach the island continent about 60 000 years ago. North America was founded at least 3 separate times - once about 45 000 years ago, again 30 000 years ago and then again 20 00 years ago. By about 40 000 years ago, humans may be said to have conquered the world.

Contrary to popular belief, our ecological record, even during this time, was not good. We did not live in harmony with nature but destroyed it wherever we went. We burnt forests to make clearings, destroyed ecosystems and extinguished many species - both animal and plant. Human intervention led to the extinction of the mastodon and the mammoths in Africa and South East Asia some 40 000 years ago, and in Australia and North Eurasia 13 000 years ago. In the Americas, about 11 000 years ago, there were giant bison (with a 2m horn spread), casteroides, camels, ground slothes, stag moose, large cats, mastodons and mammoths, and wild horses. Less than a thousand years later, nearly all were extinct as a result of human activity. Horses had to be reintroduced to the Americas in the 16th century AD.

Yet, by the end of that era, human civilization had developed sufficient knowledge and skill to make engineering marvels like the Stone Henge (circa 2000 BC) possible. Considering the technological capabilities demonstrated by the earliest cities - the Pyramids of Giza at around 2500 BC, the Great Wall of China at around 200 BC, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon at around 600 BC, and the Mayan city at Yucatan at around 400 BC - it is hard to imagine that such technological knowledge can emerge quite so suddenly.

An Ecological Fallacy

It is somewhat fashionable to suggest that we were more attuned to the needs of nature during those times. Historical evidence suggests otherwise. The link between the extinction of several animal species and human invasion was mentioned earlier. During more recent times, there is reason to believe that human settlement was the cause of soil depletion and desertification. Cities, in particular, were never clean nor hygienic. J.D. Hughes wrote of the cities of Mesopotamia (Wall 1994, pp. 33-34):

" The earliest cities seem to have shared some of the problems which have become as annoying in their modern counterparts. . .The evidence of narrow streets and small rooms in houses huddled within the compass of defensible walls tell us that overcrowding in ancient cities were extreme. Garbage accumulated in the houses, where the dirt floors were continually being raised by the debris, and human wastes were rarely carried further than the nearest street. The water supply. . . was likely to be polluted. Life expectancy was short. . .Flies, rodents and cockroaches were constant pests. Even air pollution was not absent. In addition to dust and offensive odors, the atmosphere filled with smoke on calm days."

While there is no denying that modern society is the source of much damage to the environment and to planetary ecological balance, it is a mistake to think that we had the solution in our hands sometime in the past. We did not and this present paper suggests that an ecological understanding of the history of our cities will provide some answers to our ecological future.

The Origins of Paradise

Our forefathers, two million years ago, were intelligent beings. They could think and figure things out. Granted, much of their understanding was eventually to be passed down to us clothed in myths of human spirits and gods and are like so much superstition to our modern eye. But who is to say that our current understand will also not be just as much foolishness in the future?

Our forefathers were intelligent enough to invent tools. They were capable of art and war. They formed societies and developed a distinctive culture in each. They were certainly clever enough to recognise a basic fact of ecology - that not all parts of the environment were equally hostile nor equally advantageous. Certain places, particularly those that were near water bodies, are especially propitious. Here, in such places, they had easy access to plant food and water. Small animals that came to drink and feed there were easy prey. The humans had only to protect themselves from attack from predatory animals or other human tribes and their future would be ensured. Here, in such places, they did not have to find sustenance, the environment supported them. Such places were paradise.

The Advantages of Settlement

The advantages of settlement are not self-evident. Recent anthropological studies found that modern nomadic tribes would disdain agriculture in favour of a nomadic life (Heinberg 1989, Sahlins in Wall 1994, pp. 24-26). The constraints on acceptable behaviour that are necessary to maintain social order are difficult to bear, even for many of us today. In a comparison between the hunter forager lifestyle and village or settled life, many researchers have found reasons to favour the former. The hunter forager worked on average the equivalent of 2 1/2 days a week, half the number of days we work today and much less than the pre-industrial agriculturist. The hunter forager experienced starvation less often than we might suppose, particularly if the tribal practices were, on the whole, not too ecological destructive. Being less in number and less laden with possession, they were also better able to seek newer pastures and survive times of temporary drought. Their lives were generally peaceful and disputes were uncommon and often settled amicably. Without a strong sense of possession, nomadic peoples were able to be more generous and accommodating.

Why then did we humans settle down? Why, and how did this settlement develop into the highly technological and complex societies we know today?

To understand this, we need to understand the attraction of settled life. This attraction is not some inexplicable instinct that evolved irrationally over time. Nor was the attraction so immediate as to be easily understood. Rather, the attraction can be attributed to certain advantages attributable to settled life that for many, outweigh the disadvantages of more work and less freedom. These attractions, on hindsight, were logical consequences of living in paradise. Yet, they were perceived in such a magical manner that these garden paradises were seen to be places blessed by the gods.

1. The Accumulation of Possession

The mere tenancy of a particular location for any length of time leads to an accumulation of property and possession. This accumulation is particularly significant to a species that recognises the usefulness of artefacts and inanimate objects. A species able to produce weapons and tools, to build shelter and defences, to see value in certain material, is likely to accumulate more of such objects and thus gain an advantage, insofar as such objects give their owners an advantage, over their nomadic cousins. The accumulation of such valued property and possessions is the source of human wealth and is as desirable today as it must have been in prehistoric times.

2. The Prolonging of Lifespan

Within the protection of paradise, and defended by both structures and warriors from predators and enemies, the aged in a settled society will tend to live longer. This longevity is not a product of some magical powers of the water, air or food of the ecosystem but a result of the removal of the need to be on the move. The disabilities of the aged, and their consequent lack of mobility, would not be as much a liability as they might be for a nomadic society.

3. Greater Health

For the same reason, the expectant mother, the suckling child and the sick will find recovery easier within a settled economy and on the whole, the mortality rate of a settled society will be better than the nomadic counterpart - for as long as the ecosystem lasts.

There are other advantages to a settled society, of course, but what makes these three qualities especially significant is that they translate into ideals we still hold dear in our modern times - wealth, health and long life. The price we pay for these ideals is the price of a civilized life - order, work and a regulated behavioural code.

Access and the Growth of Settlements

As such material advantages become visible and attributable to settlements, other human beings will seek entry to established settlements. The price of access was not always war or tribal unions. In fact, it is likely that aggression was the answer only when access is attempted by large groups. Peaceful access by individuals was easier. Peaceful access was possible if you had goods to trade, knowledge to share, and skills to impart. The strong and the beautiful will also be desired and allowed access. As the early settlements grew in strength and size, the need for greater science and technology - in the aid of defence, for food gathering and storage, the provision of shelter, and so on - also grew. It is this pressure to prolong stay that led to the development of agriculture (and not agriculture that led to settlement). In time, the needs of settlement led to the development and accumulation of skills, culture, and knowledge. Language evolved because of the needs of settlement. And the limits to settlement was and has always been defined by the ecosystem and our ability to exploit it (through technology), rather than the development of technology in and of itself.

The Fall from Paradise

It is important to understand what happened when we found paradise. Not surprisingly, and this is evidenced by our history, we often outgrew and eventually annihilated paradise and were forced to leave it. The most frequent response to this loss was to look for another paradise. This we were able to do as the garden paradise needed by prehistoric humans was not hard to come by.

What was significant was that the fall from paradise was not experienced as a ‘natural’ failure. Where, as a nomadic creature, the availability of food and the problems associated with a nomadic life had an immediate causal nature that did not invite deeper investigation, the failure of paradise was such that it prompted and stirred the human imagination. There we were, living happily and prosperously in paradise. And then, catastrophe. The river flooded where it used to flow gently along its banks. A disease that struck one of the inhabitants spread to decimate the entire village. Something happened that did not just strike one or two but brought to an end a life only the selected few were able to enjoy.

In this, we can see the mechanics that led us to contemplate the source of nature, and the beginnings of religion. While living in paradise, we enjoyed advantages not shared by the nomadic tribes. But, when paradise fell, the calamity that befell us outweighed the disasters that we understood and were familiar with when on the move. These extremes of good fortune and high tragedy begged for an explanation that went beyond observable cause and effect. And indeed, early knowledge was not easily separated from religious knowledge or the practice of religion. Through finding, living in and then losing paradise, early human began to contemplate the hidden mysteries of life and of nature.

The First Paradises

The kind of paradise envisioned here, a self-sustaining ecosystem that will allow human occupation and provide for their needs, is fairly easy to find in the wild. However, as humans exploited the ecosystem far more than our animal counterparts and were, on the whole, more destructive than constructive - then, as our demands upon the ecosystem grew with time, the harder it became to find ecosystems to fulfil these needs. A more complex and, in the end, artificial system of maintaining the permanence of society was needed and developed.

With the finding of each paradise, there was both internal and external pressure to expand the demands on the ecosystem. The pressures that existed were complex and are to be found still in our modern society. For it is of greater advantage both to the outsider and the inhabitants to allow limited access than to exclude all foreigners. As outsiders with produce to trade, skills and knowledge to share, wealth and beauty to offer were allowed access, those who seek to disrupt or destroy the order of the society will be kept out, or if they were insiders, exterminated, incarcerated, punished or banished. In time, the strength of the settled society would grow but, at the same time, internal forces within the settled community - strain on the ecosystem, internal strife, etc. - would also tend to lead to its demise. This tension between the desirable consequences of a settled life and the constraints it places on its inhabitants and on the society itself is a fundamental characteristic of cities, even to this day.

Over time, we evolved knowledge - a deeper understanding of the environment not just based on observable phenomena but also on abstractions and imagined constructions of the universe. Such constructions of knowledge must inevitably be a mixture of accurate conjecture and mistaken superstition. Some of this knowledge was quantifiable and was able to withstand the test of time and scepticism but others were unquantifiable and yet of such immeasurable importance that to ensure their endurance, myths of supernatural powers and spirits were created. One such myth is the myth of paradise.

Paradise in Mythology

An ecological understanding of place, of the importance of one location over others, and of the complexity and delicate balance that holds the ecosystem together, took great intelligence and effort to develop. The best of the species, those with the leadership, strength and insight to forge the direction the society should take, and over a period of time, combined to make possible increasingly large settlements and increasingly complex mythologies and belief systems.

Given this early dependence on ecology, it is not surprising that the paradise myth should surface so frequently in ancient cultures and with such consistent common characteristics [Moynihan 1976, Heinberg 1989, Harris 1996]. In almost every culture there is a utopian vision of life lived in harmony with nature within an Arcadian context. The origin of the species is frequently linked to such a