The political and religious unification of the planet for human welfare is the principle that is gradually coming to dominate this cycle, a cycle which began about 6000 B.P. This cycle, according to ”Abdu’l-Baha, the legitimate successor of the new Revelation for the future of humankind, will last for 500,000 years and we are, at the moment, at the start of the second period in this cycle(1844-1944).1
The first proto-states developed in Mesopatamia, Egypt and India at this time, about 6000 B.P. The concepts and the principles involved in the development of the nation state can be analysed and discussed as they are in political anthropology, political sociology and history among other social science disciplines. For my purposes here, the union, the federation of seven Dutch provinces in 1581, independent of a monarch could be said to initiate the start of the modern phase of the nation state. The Peace of Westphalia in 1648, signed when parties who had been at war for 30 years came together, could also be seen as marking another critical stage in modern nationhood. It was the first time that a European community of sovereign states was established. And it was only possible because all of its members recognized each other as having equal legal standing, and guaranteed each other their independence. They had to recognize their international legal treaties as binding, if they wanted to be an international community of law.
Previous cycles in physical and cultural evolution are not referred to as “cycles”, as far as I know, by ”Abdu’l-Baha. But if one goes back to 500,000 B.P. we find, at least since 1907, Homo. heidelbergensis, the possible direct ancestor of Homo. neanderthalensis. He is seen as part of the proto-human species. He hunted, buried his dead and was developing a complex mind.2 And so began the story of the million year period in which we are at the mid-point.-Ron Price with thanks to Juan Cole, “The Concept of the Manifestation in the Baha’i Writings,” Baha’i Studies, Vol.9, pp.36-7; and “Science and Nature: Prehistoric Life,” bbc.co.uk, 18 December 2007.
It really only began just the other day--
several thousand years after we began
to settle into agriculture and with the
development of those proto-states in
Mesopotamia, Egypt, India: 4000 B.P.
It really only began just the other day--
after that union of Dutch provinces in
1581 and that Treaty of Westphalia in
1648, landmarks on the way to that big
year 1844 at the start of the 2nd Period
of this Baha’i Era: 1844--501,844 A.D.(circa)
It really only began just the other day--
the political and religious unification
of Homo.sapiens, sapiens, sub-species
of Homo.sapiens of the genus Homo of
the family Hominidae of that order of
Primates of the class Mammalia of the
phylum Chordata of the kingdom Animalia--
after the great treck out of Africa thousands
and thousands of years ago to cover the globe
in the greatest of journeys, stories, ever told.
And so it grew: clans and chiefdoms, tribes
and city states, nations and now a federation:
units of social organization across the face of
this planet”little by little, day by day in larger
and larger interdependencies. Some fortuitous
series of synchronized events bringing this
national state, a cultural artefact created through
a somewhat spontaneous distillation of discrete
historical events, into existence just at the time
as a Light of Divine guidance appeared in the
Middle East: Shaykh Ahmad, Siyyid Kazim,the Bab,
Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'l-Baha.....(1)
(1) 1743-1892
Ron Price
19 December 2007
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Edited by Bahaichap, : No reason given.
married and a teacher for over 30 years, a Baha'i for 48
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