During his life, 100 years ago, Rudolf Steiner made a number of comments on the subject of the origin and evolution of mankind, as he saw and understood it from the perspective of what he referred to as "spiritual science".

The following reflects the understanding of the two main authors of this site of some of the issues involved.

In the view and understanding of Rudolf Steiner, what is human in us does not arise out of nothing at birth, but has lived a number of lives on the Earth as we now experience it, since far back in its evolution, in different human forms.

Some of these human forms developed during what in paleontology is referred to as Cenozoic time, encompassing Tertiary - for which radiometric dating methods give some 65 Million years ago as a starting point - and Quaternary, up to the end of Pleistocene some 10.000 years ago at the end of a number of glacial ages.

In paleontology, the remains found in different strata of the Earth for natural reasons are viewed as reflections of the evolution of life and the life forms on Earth.

The paleontological remains from Cenozoic time reflect one of the dominating traits of the period, the development of the primates. The appearance of the hominid "Lucy" in Eastern Africa, radiometrically dated as having lived some 3.6 million years ago in late Cenozoicum, seems to indicate a hominid form at a stage somewhere between ape and human, with the apes understood to be predecessors to man in human evolution.

One of the number of things that at first probably to most sounds surprising, when starting to penetrate the views of Steiner on human evolution, is that in his view, expressed at the end of his life in discussions with teachers at the first Waldorf School, development during Cenozoic time up to the end of Pleistocene in general parallels what in the esoteric tradition is referred to as "Atlantis", or "Atlantean times".

How do the paleontological findings from Cenozoic time relate to this view of Steiner of it as paralleling development during "Atlantis"?

One probably has to differentiate between several layers of the backgrounds for the myths about, and understanding of what is called "Atlantis", that first appears in the writings of Plato.

While one upper layer of the myth seems related to local inundations in the fertile crescent and Eastern Mediterranean in or around the beginning of historial times some 3.000 B.C., a deeper layer seems related to a civilization developing West of Europe and Africa somewhere in the Atlantean area long before historical times.

The view of Steiner points to a possibly even deeper layer of the concept and myth.

In his view, the human being does not primarily originate out of nature, but as a spiritual being, originating and developing out of the activity and care of higher spiritual beings.

One late stage in this development of the human being in his view has taken place as part of the development of our present solar system.

In the theosophical tradition the basic stages in the development of our solar system is referred to with the term "root races", seemingly much coming out of the fixation on the concept "race" during Victorian times as part of the efforts to understand evolution at the time.

In anthroposophy this development of our present solar system is not in general understood or referred to in terms of "races" (or "root races").

Instead it is understood and referred to out of the (geo-centric) perspective and concept "Earth epochs", that focusses on an understanding of the development of our solar system as a reflection of the stages in the development wo/man and Earth.

Another reason is that Steiner considered the concept of "race" as it was understood at the time to be misleading in this perspective, and that it only fully and properly could be used in relation to the development of us as humans during the time preceding the end of the last glacial age.

For more on this, see here.

One stage in this development of humanity, as part of of the development of our present solar system however in the view and understanding of Steiner had the nature of the formation of a number of sequential human races in the biological sense.

It is the time of "Atlantis", in the view of Steiner paralleling the development during what is called Cenozoic time.

Some have been lives in ever more human forms forms that can be characterized as different sequential "races" during the Cenozoic time, that encompasses Tertiary and Quaternary. Other lives have been in the different - what later has been described as - the "five main races of humanity"; "Ethiopeans"-Africans, "Malayans", "Mongols", Caucasians and American Indians.

This has made some people with a superficial understanding of the complex issue and Steiner's characterization of the two types of "races" in question at different times as being "racist".

That is not the case. What "race", nationality and gender we live in and have as our external appearance repeatedly varies for different reasons. It is just an external form through which we express ourselves and make experiences at different times of our development.
 

"SUB RACES OF ATLANTEAN TIME" - STAGES IN HUMAN EVOLUTION DURING TERTIARY AND QUATERNARY 

Anthroposophy and the esoteric tradition refers to the fourth basic "Earth epoch" as "the Atlantean epoch".

Already 80 years ago in discussions with teachers at the first Waldorf School, Steiner pointed to that this can be understood to refer to the development of humanity during the period that is reflected in the paleontological remains from the beginning of Tertiary with Palaeocene up to the end of Pleistocene at the end of Quaternary; the end of the last glacial age and the mythical deluge.

According to Steiner, two types of human race formation in a biological sense took place during the periods, that at present normally, from a radiometric perspective, are dated to have started c. 65 Million and ending some 10.000 years ago.

One was the formation of seven sequential human "sub races" or "Atlantis". The other was the formation of what later has been called the five main races of humanity, that we still experience the fading remains of.

As to the seven sequential human "sub races" of "Atlantean" time, that in the view of Steiner partly are reflected in the paleontological remains from Tertiary and Quaternary up to the end of Pleistocene, it is a concept that still largely is uninvestigated as to its more detailed empirical meaning, even if some works have tried to penetrate it.

But it points to a view of Steiner, that humans have existed the whole period in question, and that what we find as the ever higher forms of paleontological remains of primates during the period only constitute densified biological forms, branched off from less dense more actual human forms, mainly not leaving any paleontological traces as such until the end of Quaternary.

What in the esoteric tradition are referred to as the first four "sub races" of Atlantean time can be understood to refer to the successive, ever more dense human forms during Tertiary, but still without leaving any paleontological traces. The view by Steiner implies that the first three of these human "sub races of Atlantean time" developed as the background for what in the paleontological remains only is found as more dense branched off placental mammals.

The last three human "sub races" of "Atlantean" time can be understood to have developed during Quaternary, up to the end of Pleistocene, with the paleontological remains only in steps slowly starting to reflect the actual human forms developing as seven successive human "sub races" of "Atlantis" during the period.

Only with Cro Magnon do the paleontological remains more in full reveal the evolutionary line, that has developed as human forms from the beginning of Quaternary and during the whole of the period.

Australopithecus ramadis, and Australopithicus afarensis, with an age of some 4 to 2.7 million years from a radiometric perspective, as exemplified by "Lucy" from Eastern Africa, in this perspective stand out as branched off reflections of the "fourth" human "sub race" of Atlantean time.

The "fourth sub race of Atlantean time" in the view of Steiner was the first human "race" that started to develop an Ego consciousness in the present sense of the word, but still seemingly not as such yet leaving any paleontological traces behind.

Only with Homo Habilis, Homo erectus, Homo Sapiens, and finally Homo Sapiens Sapiens and Cro Magnon, in stages reflecting the development of man, taking place beyond the scene of the paleontological remains from the second half of "Atlantean time" in the terminology of the esoteric tradition, do the remains slowly ever more close in on the actual main human forms developing as the actual latter four of the human "sub races of Atlantis" during the time, mainly not visible as such in the paleontological remains until the end of the period.
 

"THE FIVE MAIN RACES OF HUMANITY" - ABNORMAL RACE FORMATION BEFORE THE END OF THE GLACIAL AGES, AND FADING SINCE THEN

Do "races" exist, and do they exist today in Steiner's view? Yes, but only as a fading reality in the proper sense of the word since long, like our gender, nationality and cultural background receding into the background in relation to the individual that lives in all of us.

While Steiner on different occasions commented on "the five races of humanity", as they were understood from the end of the 18th century, he stressed that the characteristics he described referred to the body of man and not what constitutes man as a human being. 

He also stressed that the concept of race, and the qualities of the different "races", that he discussed at the beginning of the 20th century, in a proper sense only was valid up to the end of the mythical "Atlantean time" some 10.000 years ago, ending with the last glacial age, that human development since the last ice ages not is "racial" in a biological sense, but cultural in nature and that the concept of human "races" in a biological sense increasingly has been losing its meaning since then and will cease to exist into the future with the increasing individualization of us as humans.

He also on a number of occasions described how we in his view and understanding move as individuals and groups of individuals between lives in different "races" through history.

For more on the 'sub races of Atlantean time' and the 'five races of humanity' in the view of Steiner, see here too.

For some comments by Rudolf Steiner on
- the invalidity of the biological concept of race today, see here.
- racism and nationalism as decaying impulses of humanity, see here.
- individuality and genus, as expressed in 1894 in his basic discussion of the nature of human freedom, see here