Thursday, September 25, 2008

for "full flowering," we need tribal-churches of 12-36

"Human beings are social animals. According to the anthropologist Margaret Mead, for 99 per cent of the time human beings have lived on this planet, we've lived in what she calls tribes or bands, that is groups of 12 to 36 people. It's only during times of war, or what we have now, which she calls the psychological equivalent of war, that the nuclear family prevails as the dominant or primary social unit, because its the most mobile unit and therefore more likely to ensure the survival of the species. 'But for the full flowering of the human spirit,' Mead says, 'we need groups, tribes.'
Community."

-Eric Utne, in Williamson, ed. "Imagine" p. 79

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Hey, thanks for engaging the conversation!