Modernity sees humanity as having ascended from what is inferior to it — life begins in slime and ends in intelligence — whereas traditional cultures see it as descended from its superiors. As the anthropologist Marshall Sahlins put the matter: “ We are the only people who assume that we have ascended from apes. Everybody else take it for granted that they are descended from gods.”
~ Huston Smith (born: 1919-05-31 age: 92)