Cultural Ecology, Perceptions of Nature and the Advent of Monotheism in the Ancient Middle East: An Hypothesis

The Middle East encompasses five ecological domains: (1) the humid highlands and their intermontane valleys, where rainfed farming was begun and permanent settlements were first established; (2) the semi-arid steppes, where the lesser amount and instability of rainfall made rainfed farming marginal but still provided vegetative resources that could be utilized by semi-nomadic pastoralists; (3) the river valleys, where irrigated farming was practiced in the floodplains and hydraulic works (including diversion canals and ponding basins) were developed; (4) the seacoasts, where fishing, seafaring, and maritime trade were practiced; and (5) the deserts, where a sparse population subsisted by hunting and occasional marauding, and eventually by becoming caravaneers conveying products such as herbs and spices overland from distant sources to centers of population. In each of these domains, a distinctive culture evolved, characterized by a specific set of precepts, beliefs, and rituals based on the deification and worship of the dominant forces of nature whose interplay seemed to govern the particular environment. In an exposition more fully elucidated in his forthcoming book The natural history of the Bible: an ecological reading of the scriptures, the author hypothesizes that it was the encompassing ecological experience of the ancient Israelites (who shifted from one domain to another in the early course of their history) that enabled them to perceive the overarching unity of all nature and therefore to begin worshipping a single God. The holistic perception of nature as an integrated domain governed by consistent principles was compatible with, and probably contributed to, the much later advent of modern science. Much has been said and written in recent decades concerning the impact of human societies and their activities on the environment. Less attention is currently paid to the equally important influences of specific environments on the evolution of human societies and their distinctive cultures. People who live in the artificial environment of the city, sheltered from direct exposure to the natural elements, find it increasingly difficult to perceive how profoundly the ecology of each region must have shaped not only the material mode of individual and collective subsistence, but also the mental attitudes and spiritual perceptions of tribes and nations. Nowhere is this reciprocal influence more clearly apparent than in the Middle East. The region called the Middle East encompasses parts of northeastern Africa and southwestern Asia. Ecologically, it spans the transition between the humid or semi-humid environment of southeastern Europe and the extremely arid environment of the great desert belt of the Sahara and the Arabian Peninsula reaching to the Thar in the Indian subcontinent. Significantly, it was in parts of this region that in the wake of the last ice age some ten thousand