ABSTRACT
For one hundred thousand years and more, we humans survived in natural time defined by the seasonal hunt for fish and game and the seasonal gathering of plants. Our development of agricul ture, beginning about 10,000 years ago, made us dependent on the growth cycles of domesticated plants and the breeding cycles of livestock. Only the industrial developments of the past few hun dred years and the electronic and informational advances of recent decades have allowed us some escape from the cyclical chains of natural time. Yet even today, people in the Northern lati tudes often need light therapy in the dark days of winter; the normal chemistry of the human brain is tuned to the suns cycle of day and night. A lack of sunlight can depress a person s spirit, an organic syndrome called seasonal affective disorder, known by its acronym SAD. It is only natural that natural time has molded the ideas of humans about nature and our place in nature.
