Stepping Stones through Time

Abstract

lie outside its memory range. In this article I aim to formulate a descriptive model for a society that operates in terms of what I call a “memory capsule” of four generations that provides an expectation of recollection over a period of about a hundred years. This model represents a rather static way to speak of the actual human experience that moves forward constantly through time as each generation replaces the one before it, and we should take account of this process, but I have found through the study of Indo-European material, and comparable material from elsewhere, that it is possible to envisage this model in terms of movement through a system of alternate generations, with each of the alternations having its distinctive nature. In the IndoEuropean case, it is proposed that the generations are marked by the central institution of kingship, with each king’s reign differing in nature from that of his predecessor and successor. The “stepping stones” of my title suggest a way of grasping this proposed dual movement through time.