ABSTRACT
The distinctive characteristics of civilizations have resulted from the interplay between certain traits of human beings and the environments in which they develop and function. Winston Churchill's phrase expresses a biological truth which is as valid for other living things as it is for human beings, in the sense that animals and plants are also shaped by the environments in which they develop. But humankind has introduced a new factor in the manifestations of environmental conditioning. The various human groups thus affirm their identity in the face of natural forces, which they use to enrich their beliefs and their social habits. Many social changes have begun as violent revolutions which were defined better by what they wanted to destroy than by what they tried to create. The future of humankind depends less on a new creation than on a resurrection with all the uncertainty and joyous hope associated with the resurrection of nature in the springtime.
