What is the origin of the hermit? The hermit varies per culture, but historically is identified as contriving a purpose that opposes the larger society in which the individual lives and functions.The motive is often depicted as evolving from a restlessness or dissatisfaction, to a processsion of thought about how the eremitic life might emerge.
Most hermits are motivated by religious, spiritual, psychological or aesthetic reasons. Because the earliest hermits identified in popular culture are seldom touched upon by anthropology (if that is even possible), they are inferences and depictions based on mythology, hagiography, and folklore. Yet these recreations can still touch upon primitive psychological factors that can be observed in historical hermits.
In the Western world, stories of primitive hermit archtypes range from the biblical story of Cain and Abel to the modern fictional “fairy tales” of Herman Hesse. In the ancient West there is no hermit literary genre, only the first hints of what might evolve into eremitism.
The biblical Book of Genesis 4.9 presents the story of the brothers Cain and Abel. Abel is identified as a pastoralist; Cain is a farmer. In their sacrificial offerings, Yahweh favors the offering of Abel but less so that of Cain. This leaves Cain sullen and disgruntled. Yahweh sees the disposition of Cain and warns him that he must accept divine judgment. Yahweh tells him: “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” Thus the relationship to Yahweh is really based on the material production of the respective brother, not on efforts or reactions to favoror less favor. If such is Yahweh’s judgment, Cain will never find favor.
Cain attacks and kills Abel. Yahweh confronts Cain and exiles him, making him “a restless wanderer on the earth.”
The definition of ancient Hebrew and Judaic religious ritual and its economic foundation is here identified. The later temple priests and authorities thrived on animal sacrifice because a portion was always reserved to themselves, while wheat or other grain would have been distributed to the entire community. The animal of Genesis was a sheep, in later eras including bulls and cows. Of the sacrificed animal, the blood was poured over the altar, the fat burned on the altar, and the breast and right thigh aportioned to the priests. This later scenario is absent in Genesis. The livelihood and offering of Cain was bound to be belittled by Yahweh and his later representatives.
The “sin” that lurked at Cain’s door is not presented as murderous intent but as Cain’s resentment of Yahweh’s disdain for his labor. Yahweh condemned Cain to exile and wandering, adding — importantly —the curse that wherever Cain went and tried to farm he will fail.
The fate of the wanderer is to have no fixed home or homeland. With wandering comes alienation from people and society, and the curse of being unable to grow food prevents Cain’s option of resuming his survival skill and deprives him of being of service to his neighbor. Thus the prototype of exile as negative or involuntary eremitism.