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Stages
of Sociocultural Development As we continue our exploration of the different aspects of the world it is useful to take a deeper look at worldviews and how they express themselves on a social and cultural level. It is by understanding these psychological structures that underpin the social and cultural structures of the world that we can begin to examine the nature of the cultural fusion being created by the various aspects of globalization. Just as
there is ample evidence to conclude that we all pass through various
stages of development individually, there is also a strong argument
to be made that societies at large pass through similar stages of development.
The art, writing, myths, and culture of each stage reflect the society's
interior perception of reality. A walk through any good museum will
illustrate this. Think of the difference between the Paleolithic cave
painting of Lascaux, or the Venus figurines of Willendorf and compare
them with the painted pottery of Greece and Egypt. How do these compare
with Giotto's use of perspective in the Scrovegni Chaple of Padua? And
how does this differ from Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel, or Davinci's
Last Supper? What about Turner's paintings of London, or Monet's
impressions of the French landscape? And surely, no one saw things quite
the same way as Picasso, whose work moved from expressionism, to cubism,
to surrealism, to abstract representation in a matter of years. And
envision his painting of Women Running on the Beach next to one
of Jackson Pollack's enormous paint splattered canvases. And how do
these compare to Andy Worhal's Marilyn paintings? Or to a contemporary
artist like David Salle, with his layered imagery juxtaposing numerous
cultural iconographic symbols in a single frame. These artists were
clearly viewing the world in different ways. Psychologist Erich Neuman believed that "the evolution of consciousness by stages is as much a collective human phenomenon as a particular individual phenomenon."(i) One of the first people to carefully study the cultural anthropology of human history and conclude that we have passed through clearly identifiable cognitive stages is independent scholar Jean Gebser. In his book Everpresent Origin, Gebser outlined six broad worldviews that societies pass through. The first is the archaic, corresponding to Paleolithic hunter-gatherer bands that had not yet begun to develop complex cultures and societies. The second is what Gebser terms the magical structure, in which language and primitive art begin to emerge and humans understand the events of their world as occurring through some non-causal, or magical process. The third stage is the mythical, in which humans explain their world through myths and stories. In the fourth, or mental stage, the society begins to investigate the causal relationship between events and reality, leaving behind myth and relying on senses and reason. Gebser's fifth stage, the rational stage, is both a progression of the mental and an aberration of it. This stage, takes the positive empirical aspects of the mental, and distorts them, consistently breaking reality down into its smallest components, yet failing to reorder, or understand them as a whole. The final stage in Gebser's mapping of cultural worldviews is the integral, which heals the dysfunction of the rational, and creates a consistently universal picture of reality. It is important
to note that while each successive stage encompasses a deeper and more
complex apprehension of the world, that all of the prior stages are
still available to an individual, and by extension, still active, or
capable of being activated in a society. As Gebser explains, "we
must first of all remain cognizant that these structures are not merely
past, but are in fact still present in more or less latent and acute
form in each one of us."(ii) Thus, while an individual or society
may in general operate from a rational perspective, it is entirely possible
for them to access and act from earlier worldviews, especially in times
of stress. Thus we see that a person or a nation with a generally Modern
and rational worldview may behave from a Traditional and or mythic worldview
when threatened. This can be seen clearly in a nation at war, or people
engaged in defending themselves from an act of violence. While this
momentary regression is quite natural, it is by no means inevitable.
By understanding the nature of our worldview we can consciously decide
not to slip into a less complex way of viewing the world, both individually
and collectively. This can become a tool for mitigating internal and
external conflict between people, cultures, and societies. Another,
more recent, investigation into the worldviews of different societies
and how we can use this knowledge is found in the work of Don Beck and
Christopher C. Cowan. Their book, Spiral Dynamics, is based on
the biopsycho-social mapping of psychologist Clare Graves, and outlines
eight main stages of sociocultural development. They label these with
colors, which keep the names from being value-laden. Each stage has
a clearly different motivation. The first, or beige stage, is motivated
by "staying alive through innate sensory equipment." The second,
or purple stage is motivated by "blood relationships and mysticism
in a magical and scary world." The red stage is motivated by enforcing
"power over self, others, and nature through exploitative independence."
Persons and societies at the blue stage of development are motivated
by "absolute belief in one right way and obedience to authority."
In contrast, the orange stage is motivated by "possibility thinking
focused on making things better for [the] self." With the green
stage "well-being of people and building consensus get highest
priority." These first six stages comprise what Beck and Cowen
refer to as first tier thinking. Which each successive stage of the
first tier encompasses a wider and more complex worldview, it is only
with the second tier worldviews that the individual perspectives of
each stage are seen as a coherent multi-viewed, multi-layered whole.
Thus the yellow stage believes in "flexible adaptation to change
through connected, big picture views," while, the eighth and final
stage of turquoise focuses on "attention to whole-Earth dynamics
and macro-level actions."(iii) While first tier worldviews can
deny the realities of previous stages, these second tier worldviews
do not tend to deny the perspectives of the earlier stages, but instead
acknowledge their needs and motivations while at the same time attempting
to place them within a context that recognizes their stage specific
value as well as the value of the whole spectrum of consciousness. Thus
the second tier stages are Integral in the sense I have been using the
word to refer to worldviews. A quick look at the different worldviews described by the four systems thus far explored, from Robert Kegan's In Over Our Heads to Ray and Anderson's Cultural Creatives, to Gebser's Everpresent Origin, to the work of Graves as described by Beck and Cowen in Spiral Dynamics, elicits some striking similarities. These similarities provide a general framework from which we can conclude that while there may be a small amount of disagreement as to the specifics of the different worldview stages available to individuals and societies as they grow and mature, there is non-the-less, a broad consensus that these stages of perception and conception are quite real. Looking at them in detail, the first three stages of Spiral Dynamics, beige, purple, and red, roughly correspond to Gebser's archaic, magic and mythical stages. They also match up roughly with Kegan's first three stage of consciousness. The red and blue stages of Spiral Dynamics are delineations of Gebser's mental stage, and align with Kegan's third order consciousness. The green stage corresponds to Gebser's rational stage, and Kegan's fourth order consciousness. The yellow and turquoise stages are successive aspects of Gebser's integral stage, and Kegan's fifth order consciousness. These final stages also align with Ray and Anderson's work. When I refer to Traditionals, I am usually speaking of people with a blue perspective. Moderns have an orange perspective. Dysfunctional postmoderns, (as opposed to healthy postmoderns), have a Green perspective. Finally Integrals (or healthy postmoderns) have first a Yellow, and eventually, a Turquoise perspective. The Worlview Stages Chart should help make this clearer.(iv) Additionally, the stages of Spiral Dynamics will be covered in more depth in the Third Turn, A Vision for World Transformation. Again, the importance of recognizing that societies move through stages of cultural development lies in the fact that the world, particularly the modern world, can best solve the problems it is creating by transcending its current worldviews for one that is Integral and eventually Spiritual. This becomes an increasingly important imperative with the passing of each day. Unlike the situations our species has encountered in the past, we do not have the leisure of time on our side. When the Traditional worldview created problems, it did not tend to threaten the existence of the whole planet. Even the perilous world of nuclear proliferation that dominated the last half of the previous century gave us time to respond. The science of nuclear energy is thoroughly modern, and its optimistic implementation as a defensive weapon and source of energy are also completely Modern responses to a new technology. Fortunately for humanity and the planet, this technology remained in the hands of relatively Modern societies for much of its existence. Now, with the dawn of a new century, nuclear proliferation is entering an even more dangerous stage as this Modern technology increasingly falls into the hands of societies that are dominated by a Traditional worldviews. Complicating matters further is the fact that the technologies we are implementing now, and those that we will be creating as this new century progresses, are often just as dangerous, if not more so, than nuclear power. Both genetic engineering and nanotechnology offer alarming potential for misuse, abuse, and accidental calamity. Only by embracing the need for, and the desire to acquire, a wider more Integral worldview will we be able to solve the problems that we have created with our Traditional, Modern, and dysfunctional postmodern perspectives. Moreover, because the rate of technological change continues to increase with every passing decade, we only have a limited window of time available to us for action. As powerful technologies become more widely available, we must strive to ensure that the most dangerous of them do not fall into the hands of those who would misuse them due to limited worldviews. We must also work to see that societies at every stage have available to them the technologies that will help them to develop fully their potentials, while wisely managing these new technologies to eliminate potentially dangerous circumstances. Of course, an Integral worldview will inevitably create problems that can only be solved by transcending it. This Herculean journey we must embark on is only the first of many such journeys we should take for the sake of the planet and our species. Fortunately, there is ample evidence to suggest that there are several further stages of development available to us as individuals and as societies beyond those already discussed. These stages, to steal a phrase from psychologist Abraham Maslow, are the further reaches of human nature, the Spiritual stages of development. Ultimately it is a Spiritual worldview that we must embrace if we are to realize the full potential of the human species and avoid the destructive tendencies that so often cripple our best intentions and better natures. Footnotes i) Erich
Neuman, The Origins and History of Consciousness, p. xx.
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