Eras, Worldviews, and Stages of Development

Our changing worldviews reflect the changing circumstances and conditions of life during Homo sapiens' 200,000 year history. Tracking our development through identifiable eras, we can see how the worldviews that prevailed in any particular era were shaped by the interplay of certain key factors:

            (1) our knowledge of the world – especially our cosmology;
            (2) our population density and social structure;
            (3) our stage of technological and economic development;
            (4) the level of our cognitive and emotional development; and
            (5) our sense of time and awareness of death

In subsequent posts I want to focus on each historical era and how these factors shaped the worldviews that were dominant at that time. In particular I want to highlight how these eras and their worldviews parallel the stages in our individual development as described by developmental psychologists.

The following is an overview of these eras, the stages of individual cognitive and emotional development that each era reflects, and the worldviews that prevailed in each.  The names that describe the developmental stages are chosen to make evident the link between each stage and its corresponding historical era.

Historical Eras                                                                Individual Developmental Stages

1. Hunter-Gatherer Bands (200,000 – 60,000 BCE)         The Innocent Nestling (2-3 years)

2. The Migratory Era (60,000 – 10,000 BCE)                   The Curious Explorer (4-6 years)

               Worldview:    Nature Spirits and Goddesses

3. The Neolithic Village (10,000 – 3,000 BCE)                  The Responsible Participant (7-12 years)

               Worldview:    The Mother Goddess

4. Civilizations and Empires (3000 BCE to the present)     The Conquering Hero (13-17 years)

               Worldviews:    Cosmic Order, Kingship, and Polytheism
                                      The Emergence of Monotheism
                                      The Axial Age
                                      The Materialist and Idealist Worldviews of Greek Philosophy                       
                                      The Christian Worldview

5. The Age of Reason (1500 CE to the present)               The Rational-Reflective Seeker (18-20 years)

               Worldviews:    The Clockwork Universe
                                      The Accidental Universe
                                      The Technological Wonderland

6. The Age of Globalization (1950 CE to the present)       The Soul-Centered Co-Creator (21 years +)

               Worldview:     The Emerging Worldview