Genealogy of Religion

Exploring the Origins, History and Future of Religion

Entries Tagged as 'Hunter-Gatherers and Religion'

Astronomy & Paleolithic Cave Paintings

August 23rd, 2010 · No Comments · Archaeology and Religion, Hunter-Gatherers and Religion, Shamans and Shamanism

Over at Seed, Holly Capelo provides a helpful survey of the various ways in which the famous Upper Paleolithic cave paintings — found primarily in France and Spain — have been interpreted over the last several decades.  The occasion for her survey, which strangely omits mention of David Lewis-Williams’ contention that the paintings were the [...]

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The Last Indian: Amazonian Ishi

August 20th, 2010 · No Comments · Hunter-Gatherers and Religion, Ritual and Religion, Shamans and Shamanism

In 1911, the last uncontacted North American Indian — Ishi of the Yahi tribe — left the California wilderness and walked into bustling civilization.  His remarkable story was told by Theodora Kroeber (wife of the anthropologist Alfred Kroeber) in her compelling biography, Ishi in Two Worlds: A Biography of the Last Wild North American Indian.
In [...]

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The Art of Perception

August 15th, 2010 · No Comments · Archaeology and Religion, Cognition and Religion, Hunter-Gatherers and Religion, Shamans and Shamanism

How we perceive the external world is a fascinating subject that has long attracted the attention of great thinkers from Kant to Nietzsche.  Kant knew that we possessed some sort of interior filter that enables us to perceive the world and Nietzsche knew that this filtered perception was always an interpretation of the world.  Modern [...]

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Archaeology of Ritual & Viking Religion

August 13th, 2010 · No Comments · Archaeology and Religion, Classifications of Religion, Definitions of Religion, Hunter-Gatherers and Religion, Magic and Religion, Pagans and Polytheism, Ritual and Religion, Shamans and Shamanism

Archaeologists working in Europe have it good, really good.  Depending on one’s interests, you can research just about anything.  Paleoanthropologists can work on hominid evolution (i.e., Homo heidelbergensis, H. antecessor, H. neanderthalensis), while their colleagues can study a host of fascinating subjects, including the Upper Paleolithic transition, mesolithic hunter-gatherers, incipient agriculturalists, and the usual smattering [...]

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Genealogy of the “Traditional” Family

August 12th, 2010 · No Comments · Cultural Evolution of Religion, History of Religions, Hunter-Gatherers and Religion, Neolithic Religions

Over at HuffPo Religion, John Whitehead has penned a high-minded piece taking Christians to task for failing to understand they are major contributors — given their high divorce rates — to the perceived breakdown of the “traditional” family.  I have bracketed “traditional” in the same manner that we should bracket “natural” — these are historical [...]

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Morality without God, Buddhism as Religion, and Christian Empire

August 7th, 2010 · No Comments · Axial Age Religions, Classifications of Religion, Cultural Evolution of Religion, Definitions of Religion, History of Religions, Hunter-Gatherers and Religion, Morality and Religion, Philosophy of Religion, Power and Religion

Incredibly, there are three articles over at HuffPo Religion that I have recently bookmarked for brief discussion here.  There are of course about ten others which reflect the liberal, progressive, ecumenical, and mystical view of religion adhered to by a tiny minority of people, and which will be of interest mostly to the highly educated [...]

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Triumph of the Texts: Religion as Word

July 26th, 2010 · No Comments · Archaeology and Religion, Axial Age Religions, Classifications of Religion, Definitions of Religion, History of Religions, Hunter-Gatherers and Religion, Methodology of Religion, Shamans and Shamanism

Nearly 5,500 years ago or about 3,500 BCE, the Sumerians began writing about supernatural matters; in a sense, this marks the origin of what most people today understand as “religion.”  This relatively modern and provincially Western understanding of religion is on full display in Paul Raushenbush’s article introducing HuffPo Religion’s new series on religious texts [...]

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Stephen Hawking on Religion: “Science Will Win”

July 19th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Archaeology and Religion, Axial Age Religions, Cognition and Religion, Cultural Evolution of Religion, History of Religions, Hunter-Gatherers and Religion, Neolithic Religions, Power and Religion

Over at ABC News, Ki Mae Heussner reports on a Diane Sawyer interview of the renowned physicist Stephen Hawking with this contentious headline: “Stephen Hawking on Religion: Science Will Win.”  This is an unfortunate banner.  During the interview, Sawyer asked if religion and science could be reconciled.  Hawking’s response was profoundly unhelpful:
“There is a fundamental [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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