Years ago, anthropologist Margaret Mead was asked by a student what she considered to be the first sign of civilization in a culture. The student expected Mead to talk about fishhooks or clay pots or grinding stones. But no, Mead said. The first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a femur that had been broken and then healed. Mead explained that in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die. You cannot run from danger, get to the river for a drink or hunt for food. You are meat for prowling beasts. No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal.
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A broken femur that has healed is evidence that someone has taken time to stay with the one who fell. Has bound up the wound. Has carried the person to safety. And has tended the person through recovery. Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts, Mead said.
This is so beautiful. Thank you.
It comes as I’m reading “Gods of the Upper Air,” the 2019 book which looks at the days when the likes of Mead, Ruth Benedict & Zora Neal Thurston were students of Franz Boas & literally birthing cultural anthropology as we know it now. And with recent horrors including Putin, the suffering in FL (both the hurricane & DeSantis sending migratory people on to fate) and Trump slamming McConnell via racist insults to his wife, it’s good to be reminded of the ones committed to kindness & healing, who are indeed still there & who still will sit with us.