Humankind

 

ln ancient times,the role played by human beings in accounts of the creation of the universe was only a modest one. It is the same even today. when we have come to control the realms of water,the earth,the underground, and the air. Humanity, however, is itself a curious form of life. both as a zoological "species"and as a subject that perceives things, creates objects, and imagines worlds; there is also much to wonder at in what it leaves behind in the course of its activities. We are used to calling this legacy "culture,"and in the Euro-American culture area this is placed in contrast to nature. Nonetheless, the affinity between culture and everything discovered in the natural world is acknowledged in the "forms and "systems" conceived by human beings. This is evidence that humanity itself is one of the structural elements in the great universal system that connotes the natural world.

 

 

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Copyright 2003 Mark Dion & The University of Tokyo