ABSTRACT
In the ancient world there was an intimate connection between beliefs about the human race's biological origins, and appraisals of the direction and value of cultural change. The two parameters of human development which were present in mythological thought divine existence and animal existence continued to be a significant element in non-mythological accounts of both biological and cultural change. A broad dichotomy exists between those thinkers who present a 'Golden Age' view of cultural development, and those whose analysis might be termed 'progressivist' and these are categories which cut across the mythological or non-mythological distinction. This idea of ambiguity and balance is expressed also in the cyclical interpretations of world history. Hard primitivism differs from both Golden Ageism and from progressivism in that it does not advise conformity to the present cultural standards: it represents therefore the only truly primitivistic and regressive version of cultural history.
