Education in primitive and early civilized cultures Prehistoric and primitive cultures The term education can be applied

to primitive cultures only in the sense of enculturation, which is the process of cultural transmission. A primitive person, whose culture is the totality of his universe, has a relatively fixed sense of cultural continuity and timelessness. The model of life is relatively static and absolute, and it is transmitted from one generation to another with little deviation. As for prehistoric education, it can only be inferred from educational practices in surviving primitive cultures.

Education in classical cultures

Ancient India
THE HINDU TRADITION
India is the site of one of the most ancient civilizations in the world. The Indo-European-speaking peoples who entered India in the 2nd millennium BCE established large-scale settlements and founded powerful kingdoms. In the course of time, a group of intellectuals, the Brahmans, became priests and men of learning; another group, of nobles and soldiers, became the Kshatriyas; the agricultural and trading class was called the Vaishyas; and artisans and labourers became theShudra. Such was the origin of the division of the Hindus into four varnas

Education in Persian, Byzantine, early Russian, and Islamic civilizations

Ancient Persia
The ancient Persian empire began when Cyrus II the Great initiated his conquests in 559 BCE. Three elements dominated this ancient Persian civilization: (1) a rigorous and challenging physical environment, (2) the activist and positive Zoroastrian religion and ethics, and (3) a militant, expansionist people. These elements developed in the Persians an adventurous personality mingled with intense national feelings. In the early period (559330 BCE), known as the Achaemenian period for the ancestor of Cyrus and his successors, education was sustained by Zoroastrian ethics and the requirements ... (100 of 123,942 words)

PRIMITIVE EDUCATION
To say just when education began is indeed difficult. Education is as old as life itself because prehistoric man must have passed on to his offspring, consciously or unconsiously, organized or unorganized, certain skills and attitudes that enabled them to survive. When a primitive culture is contrasted with a civilized culture, marked differences will be noted: First, primitive culture was relatively simple. Primitive man's activities were to feed, clothe, shelter and protect himself and those dependent on him. Second, he had relatively narrow social and cultural contacts. His tribe was small and occupied a small area, but the life of the tribe bounded the world of his thinking and of his sympathies. Because of their limited cultural contacts, primitive people were extraordinarily conservative and prone to superstition. They clung with great tenacity to old ideas and ways of behavior. Belief in magic and the occult was universal among them. Their world was peopled with unseen beings, ghosts, spirits and deities. Illness, famine, storms, accidents and failure were attributed to actions of ill-disposed spirits. The safety of the group depended, therefore, on witch doctors and the faithfulness with which religious duties and ceremonies were performed. Third, the organization of primitive life was tribal, not political, so that one function of education was to enable one to live with his relatives. Lastly, the most significant feature was the absence from primitive cultures of reading and writing. They possessed arts and information but they lacked the methods by which these were collected and made available for use. They had stories, songs, implements and institutions but their educational activities were directed to the transmission of learning not to be learner's development, the increase of knowledge, or the discovery of new skills.