The concept of Prehistory determines issues prior to the appearance of man on Earth. The idea of Prehistory was based on a perspective where some historians thought it was impossible to study the past of societies that did not dominate writing. In this way, such prehistoric studies understood this spatiotemporal cutout as the moment in which societies should develop until reaching specific forms of organization.
Two great events that established the end of Prehistory, in the view of these historians, were the development of writing and the domination of agricultural techniques. Apart from that, any society that still conserved habits such as nomadism or the use of other forms of expression would still be “stuck in prehistoric times”. In fact, this type of conception abandons a rich universe of customs and habits that can offer a more comprehensive look at such times.
The development of certain types of relationship between man and nature – during Prehistory – differs in many ways from the ways we conceive today. The submission to certain impositions of the natural environment and the diverse use of the resources offered by the environment established a much more integrated relationship between man and nature. Certain human societies, seeing the domain of nature as a sign of “improvement” of their living conditions, ended up subjugating the planet and other societies to their own interests.
Since then, some civilizations have adopted the domination and exploitation of nature as the pillars of what the historian Alfredo Bosi calls the “religion of progress”. In the 15th and 19th centuries, the domination of European nations over American and Afro-Asian peoples – motivating a prejudiced look towards blacks, Indians and Orientals - is justified in the replacement of "delay" by "progress". In this way, we see that what is at stake is much more than simply reaching for more practical and comfortable ways of life.
Current environmental problems involving rising temperatures on the planet and the dilemma of future scarcity drinking water are some points where we observe the failures of a good part of civilizations customs contemporary. Today, we cannot want to live in a prehistoric way or radically abolish the customs of our society. The great challenge is to rethink our future relationship with the planet and thus, perhaps, take another look at the “backwardness” of prehistoric peoples.
By Rainer Sousa
Graduated in History
Brazil School Team
History - Brazil School
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/historia/prehistoria-na-historia.htm