Mononorm is ... Mononorms of primitive society

Public education appeared only about four thousand years ago. But the social evolution of mankind totals more than fifty thousand years. Long before the emergence of statehood, there were already some norms of communication between people, regulation, power, management. In science all these relations are called mononorms. But what is this? Mononorm is a traditional domestic regulator, the rudiment of morality and law.

Types of regulators

Mononorm - this is a single, common for all rule of conduct (or a set of rules and regulations). Pershitz, an outstanding domestic historian and ethnographer, distinguished the following types of relations:

1) family and marriage;

2) the division of labor according to gender;

3) rules of war and hunting;

4) the division of food on the basis of gender and social hierarchy;

5) conflict resolution between individual members of the community.

Moral of primitive man

Mononorms of primitive society are characterized by the fact that there was no division of rights and duties according to the types of norms - moral, religious. Often, society was regulated by certain forms of taboos (prohibitions), which were perceived by prehistoric people as dogmas (precepts) emanating from spirits or gods (forces of the supernatural). It was obligatory that these norms were fixed by magical and religious sanctions. For the emerging at that time, the moral and legal system was characterized by the so-called "totemic" form, that is, some animal or plant was declared sacred. Totemism is the belief that a supernatural relationship exists between a tribe and a particular kind of plant / animal or even an object . Because of this, people were forbidden to kill this animal (or to pluck a plant). In some way, such a mononorm is a primitive prototype of the "Red Book" as an environmental regulator.

And what could have been?

Mononorm is a method of regulation, often unconditional, which dates back to ancient times. In the prehistoric era, among the various methods of influencing the society that was just starting to form, there were basically bans. But there was a small share and permissions (permits), often positive. For example, incest (incest) and violation of functional responsibilities in the tribe / community were prohibited. At the same time hunting was permitted on certain sites for certain species of animals. Positive regulation of social relations consisted in the designation of goals: the rationalization of cooking, the construction of dwellings, the manufacture of tools and so on. But still these norms did not distinguish a person from the surrounding nature. They only contributed to the creation of effective methods of appropriating elements of nature (for example, obtaining fire or breeding domestic animals).

How do we know about these regulators?

For a primitive man, a mononorm is a tribal duty and a necessity. In our time, one can find echoes of these rules and prohibitions in customs, rituals, myths, rituals. Custom is the first historical regulator of relations between tribes and individuals. It was rituals that fixed the developed useful and rational models of behavior for centuries, which were then passed down through generations and reflected the interests of all members of the tribe in equal measure. The customs varied very slowly, which fully corresponded to the rates of development that were standard for the society of those times. Observance of prescribed rituals was the responsibility of each individual member of the community, which then developed into a strong habit. It was the indisputability of tribal customs that became the basis for the community of interests of tribal members, their equality, the absence of contradictions between interests.