CIVILISATION.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 24 September 1924, Page 7

CIVILISATION.

ORIGIN IN EGYPT

PROFESSOR' SMITH’S LECTURE.

The disinguished anthropologist. Professor Crafton Elliot Smith, recently delivered an address in Sydney on the subject of “The Origin of Civilisation.” . Professor Smith commenced by insisting on hjs belief that the country in which civilisation undoubtedly originated was Egypt. He spoke of the work which he had done in Egypt in investigating the history of mummification which, he stated, had an important bearing on the interpretation of the' origin and diffusion of civilisation In attempting to arrive at an explanation of the origin of civilisation, it was necessary to investagate the human motives which impelled men to give up their freedom and to adopt an arbitrary restriction over their whole bourse of conduct. **

The lecturer went on to point out that the 5000 years during which civilisation had been beveloping Was a mere insignificant incident in the history of the human family. In America at present, he said, there was much propaganda being put forward, based on the claim that the Nordic race was a race of super-men. From the point of view of civilisation, however, the-Nordic race was comparatively young. It was with the Mediterranean races that civilisation had commenced, and the Nordic race had been forced, comparatively recently, to embark on the hazardous process of building: up a system of civilisation. Professor Smith expressed himself definitely on the side of the belief that civilisation was of unitary origin, and not, as had been thought up till recent years, of the sporadic and independent growth in different parts of the world.’ He adduced, reasons for discarding the claims that civilisation, had originated in Baby_ lonia, - Syria, •or Crete, claiming that its growth in these countries had been merely an offs'hot from its real place of origin—EgyptIn explanation of how he first became interested in the subject of Egyptian mummification, Professor Smith mentioned his examination of, mummies from the Torres Straits islands, which were housed in the Brisbane Museum. He had discovered that the process by which those mummies had been embalmed was similar to that which had persisted in Egypt for 40 centuries. The Egyptians', he explained, held the belief that the preservation, of the body after death ensured the continuation of existence, and they . had experimented over many yieSars with varying methods of mummification. From this discovery he had endeavoured to link up the existence of this curious practice in the Torres Straits, with the methods of ancient Egypt, and from that he had commenced to trace the spread of the ancient civilisation. The chief factor in the commencement of civilised life in Egypt, continued Professor Smith, was. the discovery of the art of agriculture. From this developed all the other arts and crafts which existed in our presentday Civilisation. Reverting to the question of mummifiaction, the lecturer explained that this was the motive which led to the discovery of the process of architecture. In making the graves for the reception of the mummies, the Egyptians found it necessary, in • conformity with their belief, to make them larger and larger,t in order to hold the food, implements, etc.y which they believed necessary to sustain, life in the future existence. Then they required a receptacle or coffin, for the mummy, and from that necessity sprang the art of carpentry. .Other arts directly connected with these efforts to preserve the bodies of the dead were stone masonry and sculpture, the latter being developed 1 when the Egyptians attempted to reproduce the form of facial characteristics, of the .'mummy when in life. This sculpture had been so remarkably developed that the wonderful Egyptian statuary was superior to that produced by modern sculptors, and Professor Smith proceeded to show how evidence was to be found in Palestine, India, Assam, Burma, and other countries of the diffusion of this form of culture in the shape of dolmans. Ancient Indian literature further corroborated this evidence, with mention of speakers of an Indo-European language. In finding a motive for the travel of Egyptians to far countries, be mentioned as one of the most prominent factors the search for gold. He pointed out that' I the modern trade routes were laid down in ancient times by the tracks of the gold-seekers. The presence of gold, in fact, determined the ancient boundaries of civilisation, ■ and a close corelation was to be found between the distribution of valuable metals and the diffusion of civilisation. As further evidence of the assertion that the country of origin of civilisation was Egypt. Professor Smith pointed out that the agricultural meth. 1 ods of the early Egyptians, notably the irrigation methods, had been copied in all parts of the world, including Babylonia, the Philippines, Peru,. and the Malay Archipelago. It was reasonable to assume that the inundation occur- , ring in the Valley of the Nile at an ' appropriate time every year had taught the Egyptians the value of irrigation, whereas in other countries, notably Babylonia, unnatural conditions for the development of an irrigation system existed. The lecturer further pointed out that the use of cows’ milk had led to the deification of the cow as identified with the “Great Mother” believed in by the ancient Egyptians as the provider of prosperity. From this, belief had developed what ethnologists called totemism.

All these points were illustrated by the lecturer by means of lantern slides. In fixing Egypt as the place of origin he said that his reasons for doing so were that the developments he had outlined could not be found in any other country. The essential human factor hearing on the development of civilisation was the realisation of primitive man of the dangers to which his life was exposed, and his crude attempts to avert these risks by devising a series of practices which he believed would give him greater vitality and added immunity to the dangers to which his life was exposed.