Preface

by Hugh M. Lewis

Worldview can be made a thing of scientific interest and definition, whether it is accepted by others or not, and such a contribution does have merit to the understanding of our world and our relation to it, if we allow it to. Unfortunately, too many people are caught up in ideological conundrums in the unfolding of their daily lives, structured as this is within a larger complex system. All too frequently they are not even aware of their symbolic dependency on ideological constructs.

The appropriate and predominant worldview of the modern era is of course science. The information revolution has entailed that we make an adjustment of even our conventional understanding of science. Natural systems theory is an outcome of this revolution, and could not have been developed outside of this context.

It is not the purpose of this work to explore the theoretical and empirical implications of worldview proper, in all its relativistic variations, or in its consequences in our lives. I have left this task for related work being undertaken concurrently with this. This work frames in a very general sense a holistic worldview that is as scientific and as objective as I can make it, but one that is, I believe, necessarily well informed by the mental gymnastics of philosophy and anthropology.

Tragically, we need the sober views of a scientific anthropology even more desperately than we did a century ago. The world has made great and rapid strides in the last few decades, especially in scientific and technological progress. But it now stands poised at the edge of the new century and new millennium with an uncertain fate, burdened by overpopulation and increasing social-environmental circumscription on a global level. The world has thus grown ready for new ideas and new ways of thinking, and can ill-afford to remain locked and bound by archaic and anachronistic conceptual systems that are the survivals of a by-gone era.

What I propose herein is a kind of scientific synthesis of a comprehensive perspective that is based on fundamental precepts and principles that cannot be ignored completely in our formulations without falsely committing ourselves to a-scientific or even anti-scientific modes of thinking. What this work embodies is a comprehensive perspective that serves somewhat as an antidote to the academic overspecialization that has witnessed wonderful technological advances but at the cost of a coherent and collective view of the world. The net result has been the sacrifice of control of knowledge and its outcomes to a bureaucratic elite that in general lack a sense of collective responsibility.

I have been left to stand utterly alone as an anthropologist of the world who believes a more authentic anthropology can only be a science with natural humanistic inclinations. But I do so in pride and without great regret for the sense of loss and alienation this has entailed in my personal and professional life. I believe that there are higher order things that we serve first, before even our own status or material well being.

The intention of this work has been to be as deliberately brief and succinct as possible. There are many lines of inquiry and elaboration suggested within these pages, and perhaps each deserves its own separate cover. But the aim of this work is communication across of broad spectrum of global society, not narrow pedantic excoriation of esoteric meanings, and therefore my own pedagogical meanderings must be cut short in the interest of brevity and clarity.

*****

This work has been the product of many years of research and thinking in different areas. I have undertaken a series of research projects over the years that have culminated in successful integrations. This product I take to be the long-term culmination of this life-experience that could not have been otherwise accomplished, and it therefore represents to me a necessary and important stage in my own extended intellectual development and growth.

I reached a point, probably a year or two ago, that on a very basic level divisions between different fields of knowledge appeared somewhat arbitrary and ill-defined considering the inherent problems that must be dealt with in a real world. What was lacking was a comprehensive perspective that served to overcome these kinds of restrictions. Creative work cannot be accomplished if we are confined strictly to "disciplinary" limitations and models. Normal inquiry articulates this well, but often goes in circles. The life of the creative mind cannot be bound to narrow pastures.

A point is reached at the same time that one can deal comfortably and in an informed way with concepts and constructs from almost any area in a more comprehensive manner that I take to be the mark of intellectual maturity. I was posturing intuitively towards that critical turning point for many years, struggling with the central dilemmas it of course entailed in my life.

I've had several critical junctures in my life. The first juncture that occurred with the tragic death of my father when I was seven, little did I understand it then. Another critical noetic event occurred in my life with the untimely death of a buddy in the Marines, in an unfortunate tank accident during unusual training exercises. The third juncture occurred with the accidental drowning of another friend whom I had spent the entire four years with in the Marines. Another juncture occurred with the completion of my dissertation. Another one came with the completion of two years integrative and research work I had done in relation to North American Ethnohistory, which resulted in the near total material loss of everything we had or worked for.

The final juncture happened in December two years ago, while sitting in a dark, damp and bitterly cold room in the middle of China that was infested with vermin and poisonous insects. I was trying desperately to put forward my research work under conditions of near complete psychological desolation and deprivation, watching my family go hungry and cold in the process, while trying to fulfill my obligations to the somewhat duplicitous Chinese authorities as a competent teacher.

That juncture came in a memory of the last day of my father's life I had long suppressed. It brought a critical transformation in my life that carried me full circle to where I began so many years ago, and that is now represented by this work. I will not say that marginalizing life experiences are good or necessary for development to occur. They fracture life in a way that nothing else can and leave holes in one's soul that are hard to fill in. But they are not ever incurable and, sometimes, the cure and recovery can even be greater than the permanent sense of loss. Part of what I learned in China that year was a sense of fundamental and unshakable faith in myself, in my knowledge, and in my basic relations with the world regardless of our circumstances.

This work was begun and completed in a relatively short time. Most of the work was completed from scratch within the space of a single month. The theoretical constructs in the physical fields were basically worked out in a week's time. I've been known to work fast and loose, hard and long hours. There are, as usual, many potholes, open-ended paragraphs and editorial glitches. I never strove to be a perfectionist in my life. I could never afford to. It is the content that I've been most concerned with, not the vehicle.

This work is a part of a larger stream and organization of work I have been carrying on at the same time. For the most part, though I find it infinitely complex and therefore always difficult and frequently frustrating, I also find it supremely liberating and meaningful when brought to some sense of fruition and completion. Learning, discovery and creation are joyous experiences of the intellect that have no equal or substitute in our materially bound worlds. It is unfortunate that we must fetter such experiences by so many unnecessary boundaries.

I believe firmly in the fundamental efficacy of this work, and it points in a new direction in which to proceed in rethinking our world. This work is not the final statement, or the end all or capstone of my other work. It is as it stands here and now but a rough draft. It shares many components with the rest of what I have done and will do, and it helps on some levels to achieve the necessary integration that complex working systems demand. But now I only seek to complete it and cast it off safely into the world to find its own place and destiny.

Natural Systems

2001