Domestic and SociaL—For many thousands of years after his beginning man ate like the animal, and had no speech. Back of ac. 25000 he attempted to cover his nakedness with the pelts of animals. Whatever its immediate ef fect it led straight to a civilizing interest in ap pearances and the welfare of the body. With the invention of the needle, c. B.C. 25000, and its notable improvement, c. ac. 16000, the cloth ing of the body not only became a habit but something of an art. Even though it originated, as some insist, as a sexual device, it became a mark of civilization. Fine clothes seemed to call forth finer manners. Personal adornment, other than clothing, such as the wearing of necklaces, c. ac. 20000, as well as earrings, arm• lets and girdles may have originated in a de sire to attract attention, or for religious or magical purposes, or as insignia of rank and accomplishment, but it led to a pride of person which must have urged the people ever further from animal-like habits. The shaving of the face and the cutting of the hair before B.c. 4000 in Egypt is evidence of a desire in man to fash. ion his life after his own ideas.
With the invention, c. ac. 9000, of a vessel that would hold water and allow of heating the water either by putting in hot stones or placing the vessel over the fire it became for the first time possible for man to cook his food and, in the matter of food and eating, marks his defi nite departure from savagery. Cooked food meant a more varied and healthful diet. It moved him to think of kw he should eat. Be fore B.C. 4500 man was eating a very coarse bread made of crushed wheat and barley and millet.
The use of the horns of cattle, as in two bas-reliefs beneath the overhanging cliff of Laussel, c. ac. 20000, and cocoanut shells and other natural products as domestic utensils helped further to humanize the method of eat ing and drinking. Other and more practical utensils were fashioned soon as ever man learned the art of fashioning and hardening clay into .pottery. The invention of the potter's wheel, c. ac. 3500, and the kiln for firing, added greatly to the beauty and usefulness of de sign, and by increasing the output the refining influence of pottery upon the methods of eating food was more widespread and effective. The importance of table manners is recognized and insisted on in the sayings of Ptah-hotep, c. B.C. 3200.
With the rise of the art of wood- and metal-working, the homes of the wealthier class, and eventually of the poorer, were furnished with stools and chairs and couches and bed steads (after ac. 3000). By thus adding to the comfort of the home it became a more desirable place and naturally exerted an increasing in fluence upon the habits and character of the people.
No single fact has been more influential in the process of civilization than the rise of the family. Respect, consideration for one an other, chastity, obedience, honor, sacrificing love, virtues altogether fundamental to civiliza tion, are its direct product. Judging from the
precepts of Ptah-hotep, c. B.C. 3200, care and consideration for one another was the proper thing between man and wife. In Babylonia the importance of the family is recognized in the laws regulating marriage, divorce, rights of wives and children, c. B.C. 2700. The precepts of Khensu-hotep, s.c. 1500, counsel children not to forget the mother-love bestowed upon them, and in the Hebrew Decalogue somewhat later it is a religious obligation for children to honor father and mother. This creates an increasing interest on the part of the parents in the bring ing up of the children. The author of the He brew Proverbs urges parents to "train up the child in the way he should go." Thus each new generation becomes trained a little more thor oughly in the ways of civilization.
Forms of government do not imply civilization, yet without government there could not well be any departure from the sav age state. Belonging to early Aurignacian times, ac. 25000,. and particularly in the later Magdalenian period, B.C. 12000, many horn im plements have been discovered, conspicuous among them being the somewhat mysterious bosons de commandment formed of an antler with one or more circular holes, supposed to have been, as Mr. Osborn says, "insignia of au thority borne by the of possible prim itive tribal organizations. It is pretty certain, according to Mr. Budge, that as far back as c, s.c. 8000 the Sumerians or their immediate ancestors were politically organized with a king at the head of things. These primitive efforts at law and order forced our wilder ancestors to hold themselves in cheek, to be less wild, to think before they acted. The earliest hint that men were beginning to adjust their disputes by presenting them to another for judgment is c. }Lc 4000, though no doubt the custom was alder. Urukagina, ruler of Lagash, c. B.C. 2700, is among the earliest known law-makers; the most noted is Hammurabi, c. s.c. 2200. These laws are attempts to compel a certain orderli ness, and decency and honor in human activities and relationships. This growing custom of mak ing a man face the wrong of his acts and in flicting a penalty therefor, compelled him to see the need of taking some thought as to the char acter and consequences of his deeds. Here and there a man, long before Hammurabi, made no table efforts to give a more civilized character to human relationships. The districts of La gash and Umma were ready to fly at each oth er's throats over a boundary dispute whereupon Mesilim, king of Kish, c. B.C. 3000, intervened and the trouble was arbitrated. The introduction of slavery, whatever its later evils and the in humanity of its beginnings, helped to transform man from the wanderer and loafer into a worker.