Mityczno-magiczne źródła antropocentryzmu

Abstract

The aim of the article is to show, that an attitude towards nature called anthropocentrism has its origins in the primitive magic rituals or religions. Human’s perception of his place in the Universe had been changing throughout the history and firstly man probably was far from belief in his own dignity in the nature. But even though, roots of an anthropocentrism were present very early, and the most clearly in man’s beliefs according to his destiny and sense of existence. First of all, the middle eastern ancient anthropogonies show us an heterogeneous image of the man. On the one hand man is weak, mortal being, on the other hand he differs from the rest of the world and is exceptional somehow. This is connected with man’s perception of the reality in which feeling of being in the centre of the happening is natural. And consequently, the ancient inhabitants of the Middle East believed that they lived in the centre of the Universe (geocentrism). Next characteristic of the ancient religions is that gods and human beings were very alike. Furthermore, people despite their respect to nature could be very proud and they acted as if they had any power over the weather conditions. Moreover, they interpreted severe disasters as some kind of punishment for their sins. Such an attitude suggests that from the beginning of their history people were very anthropocentric.