ABSTRACT
A quantum leap in the historical stream of Western human cognizance was foretold in Descartes’ statement, “I think, therefore I am.” In the centuries that ensued, the historical cultural axiom, “I belong, therefore I am,” was exchanged for Descartes’ individualistic dictum. The life of the individual, gradually superseded the participation in and contribution to the life and welfare of the family or community, as the primary source of human identity (Masamba Ma Mpolo cited in Augsberger, 1986, p. 79). A schism had been etched, as reflected in the use of the antithetical contemporary cultural designations of the traditional and the modern. Moreover, modernity was positioned at the climax of a linear progression of human development beginning originally with the traditional. Participation in modernity emerged as the precursor to full existential awareness. The linkage of humanity to progress, as defined and experienced by the modern individual, was extrapolated until individual human progress became the ontological reality to which all other realities were held subservient.
