Human Ecology Review, Vol. 11, No. 2, 2004 133 © Society for Human Ecology Research in Human Ecology Abstract The Stone Age constitutes a substantially and symboli- cally decisive era of human development. Substantially, since it informs us of the ways our archaic ancestors per- ceived and treated the natural environment. Symbolically, since primordialism is considered by many to be the stage of human purity and uncorrupted expression of human psyche. An investigation of the Upper Palaeolithic period leads us to question the “ecocentric” thesis, that is, the alleged stage of harmony between primitive homo sapiens sapiens and nature. Instead, by distinguishing between nature- as-resources and nature-as-symbolism, and by stressing the open-ended nature of human bio-psychology, we arrive at the tentative conclusions that palaeolithic egalitarianism facilitated a “prosopocentric” (person-centred) Cosmic Order characterized by the conflation of subject and object. It was not ecologically sensitive and thus it did not prevent economic exploitation and environmental damage. During the Neo-lithic period the band became socially, economical- ly, and politically caged. Symbolically, it meant the shift from pro-sopocentrism to theocentrism (god-centred cosmic order). Though the passage to hoe and agriculture shifted attention from fauna to flora appropriation, the economic attitude itself remained opportunistic and exploitative. We conclude that while social structures were at the heart of Stone Age worldviews, opportunistic appropriation of scarce resources depended on both knowledge of the local environ- ment and social competition. Keywords: ecology, ecocentrism, Stone Age Introduction Prehistory fascinates normative political theory as no other single period in our history, as it constitutes the defin- ing moment of our entrance into the world, the state of inno- cence, and in the Judaeo-Christian tradition, the Paradise Lost. No wonder then that it also constitutes the foundation of political, moral, and social discourses, the explicit or tacit foundation of political theories, and movements for main- taining or altering social structures. Recently, the Palaeolithic Age has once again been mobilised, this time by radical environmentalism, to suggest that primitive or tribal communities of hunters and gatherers show us the way to build a benign and ecologically sound society. The argument is not new. Since Rousseau intro- duced it as a political alternative to Hobbes’ idea of primitive life being “nasty, brutish, and short,” a number of modern western thinkers (Marx, Adorno and Horkheimer, and Levi- Strauss among them), have perceived primitivism as a state of “harmony” in the social and the ecological realms. The pre- dominance of egalitarianism and group values, the ritualistic and bloodless attitudes toward warfare, and the apparent political equality between sexes constitute attractive cultural properties and an alternative to the evils of modernity. The Stone Age: A Modern Arena The latest appraisal of preliterate, egalitarian societies, and the alleged harmonious relationship they keep with nature, started in earnest in the 1970s with Marshall Sahlins’ book Stone Age Economics and its “original affluence” thesis (Sahlins 1972). Sahlins declared that primitive egalitarian- ism was not synonymous to economic harshness. Instead, the deep knowledge these bands possessed about their local ecosystems allowed them an easy and affluent life based on the demand, rather than the supply, of goods. ... the [Stone Age] economy is seriously afflicted by the imminence of diminishing returns. Beginning in subsistence and spreading from there to every sec- tor, an initial success seems only to develop the probability that further efforts will yield smaller benefits. This describes the typical curve of food- getting within a particular locale. A modest number of people usually sooner than later reduce the food resources within convenient range of camp. Thereafter, they may stay on only by absorbing an increase in real costs or a decline in real returns: rise in costs if the people choose to search farther Harmony and Tension in Early Human Ecology: From Prosopocentrism to Early Theocentrism Manussos Marangudakis Department of Sociology University of the Aegean Mytilene GREECE 1