Genealogy of Religion

Exploring the Origins, History and Future of Religion

Entries Tagged as 'Ecology of Religion'

The “Sin” of Sodomy and Demographic Imperatives

July 13th, 2010 · No Comments · Ecology of Religion, Economy and Religion, History of Religions, Morality and Religion, Power and Religion, Religion as Evolutionary Adaptation, Ritual and Religion

When attempting to determine whether something is “natural ” (vis-a-vis yesterday’s post on Catholicism and homosexuality) one good way of investigating the issue is to use the genealogical method.  So far as I can tell, there are no hunter-gatherer or pre-Neolithic societies that had taboos against homosexuality.  We can therefore trace the history of the [...]

[Read more →]

Tags:········································

Professor Condemns Homosexuality on Basis of “Natural Moral Law”

July 11th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Axial Age Religions, Ecology of Religion, Evolution and Selection, History of Religions, Hunter-Gatherers and Religion, Morality and Religion, Philosophy of Religion

Over at Pharyngula, PZ Myers discusses the case of a professor — teaching at a public university — who presented his Catholic views, disguised as philosophy, on homosexuality to his students.  One student complained to the administration, calling the professor’s position “hate speech.”  PZ Myers disagrees and calls it “stupid speech.”  Myers then proceeds to [...]

[Read more →]

Tags:·············································

Non-Religious Chimpanzees Cooperate and War for Territory

June 28th, 2010 · No Comments · Cultural Evolution of Religion, Ecology of Religion, Economy and Religion, Evolution and Selection, History of Religions, Hunter-Gatherers and Religion, Neolithic Religions, Power and Religion, Religion as Evolutionary Adaptation, Religion as Evolutionary Byproduct, Shamans and Shamanism

There have been many articles over the past week reporting that an unusually large group (150 members) of chimpanzees in Kibale National Park, Uganda has been engaging in systematic territorial expansion by attacking and killing neighboring groups.  The Nature article notes that this is “cooperative behavior” and then quotes from the New York Times story:
These [...]

[Read more →]

Tags:···································

Sumerian Spiritualism: The Earliest Organized Religion

June 27th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Archaeology and Religion, Cultural Evolution of Religion, Ecology of Religion, Economy and Religion, History of Religions, Neolithic Religions, Pagans and Polytheism, Power and Religion

It was with great sadness that I read a recent article in the New York Times documenting the pillaging and destruction of Mesopotamian archaeological sites in Iraq.  Although these Sumerian, Akkadian, and Babylonian sites — and previous excavations — receive scant attention outside small groups of antiquities scholars, they are of critical importance to our [...]

[Read more →]

Tags:······························

The Millenarian Ghost Dance and Massacre at Wounded Knee

June 21st, 2010 · No Comments · Ecology of Religion, Economy and Religion, History of Religions, Power and Religion, Ritual and Religion, Shamans and Shamanism

To learn more about the Native American Ghost Dance movement and the conflagration at Wounded Knee in 1890, over the weekend I read Rex Alan Smith’s Moon of the Popping Trees: The Tragedy at Wounded Knee and the End of the Indian Wars.  Smith has constructed a crisp narrative that will hold your attention.
For those [...]

[Read more →]

Tags:·············

Agriculture and the Apocalypse

June 15th, 2010 · No Comments · Cultural Evolution of Religion, Ecology of Religion, Economy and Religion, Hunter-Gatherers and Religion, Shamans and Shamanism

By my reading of history, the turning (or tipping) point for humanity was the domestication of plants and animals, otherwise known as the Neolithic Revolution.  Before this occurred — at different places in the world at different times, beginning approximately 12,000 years ago and largely the dominant mode of production by 5,000 years ago — [...]

[Read more →]

Tags:·······················

Do Hominid Burials Indicate a Belief in Spirits or Souls?

June 9th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Archaeology and Religion, Classifications of Religion, Cognition and Religion, Cultural Evolution of Religion, Definitions of Religion, Ecology of Religion, History of Religions, Methodology of Religion, Ritual and Religion

In light of yesterday’s post regarding the widespread and naturally explicable belief that humans have spirits or souls, I thought it would be appropriate to continue on a related topic.  It is often claimed, by enthusiastic archaeologists and anthropologists, that deliberate burial of the dead is a symbolic practice related to belief in the spirit [...]

[Read more →]

Tags:······················

Homo Religiosus, Religion, and Fertility: A Conversation with Michael Blume

June 4th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Cognition and Religion, Ecology of Religion, Evolution and Selection, History of Religions, Hunter-Gatherers and Religion, Religion as Evolutionary Adaptation, Religion as Evolutionary Byproduct, Shamans and Shamanism

I recently found an excellent blog, Homo religiosus — The Natural History of Religion, written by the German scholar Dr. Michael Blume.  After I linked to his blog, Michael came over here for some reading.  He also had a question, which I answered, and he responded.  The issue we are discussing — higher fertility rates [...]

[Read more →]

Tags:··················

Training Humans: Better Living Through Religious Indoctrination

June 1st, 2010 · No Comments · Cognition and Religion, Cultural Evolution of Religion, Ecology of Religion, Emotions and Religion, Morality and Religion, Recent and New Religions, Ritual and Religion

Today’s title riffs on the seventh installment of William Saletan’s Slate series on the memory researcher, Dr. Elizabeth Loftus.  In several places in the article, one could simply replace words or phrases and the result would be an accurate description of the ways in which religious cultural inputs create imaginary worlds for believers of most [...]

[Read more →]

Tags:············

Sabbath Sundries — Preparing for Ritual and Religion

May 2nd, 2010 · No Comments · Definitions of Religion, Ecology of Religion, History of Religions, Recent and New Religions, Religion as Evolutionary Adaptation, Ritual and Religion

As was the case last week, there are several reports and news items deserving notation and comment, so I will touch on a number of them today.  In any event, I want to clear the decks because during the coming week I will be analyzing a major thesis in religious studies: the relationship between ritual [...]

[Read more →]

Tags:········