Indo-European Tripartition

 These three categories apply at all scales. On the microcosmic level of the individual human, the three categories are present as follows-- the head, as the site of speech and thought; the arms and chest, the site of force and activity; and the belly and genital organs, the site of regeneration and nutrition.

 On a middle "mesocosmic" level, society is divided into classes representing the three functions; priests, warriors, and producers. For example, Plato's ideal republic consists of Philosophers, Guardians, and the Workers. The U.S. Constitution enshrines this functional breakdown in its tripartite Federal government: the preistly Supreme Court (robed figures who sit in a temple and guard the legal mysteries), the Comander-in-Chief, who controls our military force, and Congress, which controls our economy and taxation. The genius of the Constitution includes this aspect of culture--when one "function" acts out of its area of responsibility, citizens feel uncomfortable on both a political and cultural level--reinforcing the proper balance of power between the branches.

On the macrocosmic level, the gods themselves are divided functionally, For example, the ancient Roman trinity of Jupiter, Mars, and Quirinus represent Sovereignity (an aspect of the priestly power), Warfare, and the Community (quirinos from "Co-viros" the men together), respectively.

 Our current scientific understanding of the properties of our universe fit easily into this scheme of classification. The universe consists of matter (producer), energy (warrior), and information (preistly). The history of the human race may be viewed as an ascension based on the mastery of these realms of the cosmos. The producer era, associated with wealth creation and plant and animal domestication, corresponds to the neolithic agricultural revolution. The warrior era, one of raw physical power, includes the industrial revolution, mass warfare, culminating in the technology of releasing atomic power. The current age, the preistly age, is the "information" age, where the power of the intellect and information is unleashed, as seen in the computer and genetic revolutions.

Below are some representative samples of the trifunctional classifications in Indo-European cultures.

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