There are many ways in which China remains a cipher for Westerners, most of whom labor under the misapprehension that “modern civilization” originated in ancient Greece and spread slowly outward, eventually reaching “backwards” China and even then only in attenuated fashion. This of course ignores parallel and in some ways more spectacular developments in Neolithic [...]
Tags:ancestor worship·ancient China·Anne Underhill·burials·China·Chinese archaeology·Chinese Neolithic·Confucius·cult of ancestors·Donald Holzman·filial piety·KC Chang·lineages·macrocosm·microcosm·parents·stratification·transcendence
In polite American company, it is considered impolitic to declare that a presidential candidate should be disqualified by his or her religion. Perhaps this is why we have a British newsmagazine asking the tough questions about Michele Bachmann’s beliefs:
[Bachmann] recommends Christian books and films that suggest non-Christians are trouble, that the government may be poisoning [...]
Tags:Christian·creationism·evangelical·Fawn Brodie·Francis Schaeffer·Joseph Smith·Michele Bachmann·Mitt Romney·Mormon·Nancy Pearcey·politics·religion·Rick Perry
If you have ever suffered through an episode of “Ancient Aliens” on the History Channel, you might believe that every megalithic structure in the world was constructed by extraterrestrials:
Apparently inspired by the show, one credulous soul posted this question over at Answers.com: “Can scientists prove that Stonehenge was not built by ancient astronauts?” The pithy [...]
Tags:ancestors·ancient aliens·ancient astronauts·archaeoastronomy·Aubrey Holes·Benjamin Ray·Bronze Age·chieftains·cycles·Durkheim·elites·form·function·Giorgio Tsoukalos·lunar·megalithic·megaliths·neolithic·power·ritual·sarsen stones·solar·Solstice·Stonehenge·Wessex·Woodhenge
According to the Ghostbusters Wiki, Gozer the Gozerian (known also as Gozer the Destructor, Volguus Zildrohar, and Lord of the Sebouillia) is an ancient entity who “was originally worshiped as a god by the Hittites, Mesopotamians, and the Sumerians around 6000 BC.” When not visiting retribution on New York in the form of the Stay [...]
Tags:Akitu·Alan Lenzi·Assyria·Assyriology·Babylon·dead religions·divine messages·Ghostbusters·Gozer·Hittites·ideology·kings·Lord of the Sebouillia·Mesopotamia·Mesopotamians·mythmaking·politics·power·prophetic texts·Sennacherib·Slavitza Jovan·social construction·Stay Puft Marshmallow Man·Sumerians·Tiamat·Ur·Volguus Zildrohar
Death is big business. This past year, Americans spent $15 billion on funeral related expenses. Americans are not outliers when it comes to death spending; funeral related expenditures around the world are estimated to be at least this much and probably more. Strangely, the ratio of death spending does not diminish in poorer countries. In [...]
Tags:ancestor cults·ancestor worship·ancestors·bones·burial·Catal Hoyuk·Catalhoyuk·Cree·death·delayed return systems·filial piety·funerals·funerary·genealogy·grave goods·Ian Hodder·J.G. Macqueen·lineages·morals·mortuary·mourning·Native Americans·norms·Ojibway·Paul Hackett·power·rituals·secondary burial·skeletons·spirits·Sunghir·supernatural surveillance
Are capitalism and Christianity compatible? This is the bizarre question asked by Mario Gómez-Zimmerman in “The Capitalist Structures of Hinduism.” His belief is that this compatibility (which seems self-evident to me) will somehow be strengthened if he can show that other religions are also compatible with capitalism.
This is a zinger of a non-sequitur which would [...]
Tags:Ayn Rand·capitalism·caste·Christianity·classical Hinduism·elites·Hinduism·India·inequality·legitimation·Mario Gomez-Zimmerman·Neolithic transition·political economy·power·stratification·Varna·Vedic
The Catholic boys club that is the United States Supreme Court really outdid themselves in Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn (April 4, 2011), a case in which Arizona citizens challenged a state law giving tax credits to those who donate to “school tuition organizations.” These organizations provide scholarships to private schools. Because nearly [...]
Tags:Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization·Arizona law·canard·Catholic·Catholic schools·Civil Religion·Dahlia Lithwick·Establishment Clause·Garrett Epps·judicial bias·judicial ethics·Justice Kagan·justices·legal fiction·parochial schools·religious schools·separation of church and state·sophistry·Supreme Court·tax break·tax credit·United States Supreme Court·Winn
John Jeremiah Sullivan’s piece on America’s ancient cave art has prompted some thinking — always the sign of good writing. If you haven’t read it yet, you should. Here are some of the things that have me cogitating:
Simek the Scientist v. Reilly the Symbolist
This is not a lawsuit — it is the tension Sullivan establishes [...]
Tags:altered states of consciousness·art·ASC·birds·caves·complex societies·dark zone·data·emic·etic·F. Kent Reilly·Jan Simek·John Jeremiah Sullivan·meaning·Mircea Eliade·Mississippian cultures·Mound Builders·Piers Vitebsky·Plains Indians·pre-state societies·shamans·soul flights·Southeastern Ceremonial Complex·Southern Death Cult·survivals·symbols·unknown caves
Over at The Economist, our correspondent reports that “religion got it right: pain seems to assuage guilt.” This conclusion is based on an Australian study that primed the usual guinea pigs (undergraduates) with guilt by having them write about something “immoral” or “unethical” they had done. Compared to a non-primed group who wrote about cupcakes [...]
Tags:altered states of consciousness·atonement·Australia·Brock Bastian·catharsis·Christians·control·ethics·flagellants·Francisco de Goya·George Catlin·guilt·Mandans·morals·pain·penitence·punishment·ritualized pain·rituals·shame·spirits·visions
Historians have long known that the shelf life of complex societies throughout human history has been rather limited. Archaeologists are aware of this also. But how to explain it?
In a recent (open access) paper, “Cycling in the Complexity of Early Societies,” Sergey Gavrilets and colleagues mathematically modeled early complex societies using a number of variables [...]
Tags:chiefs·collective action problems·competition·complex societies·control mechanisms·cycling·David Anderson·domination·earliest religions·early societies·elites·emergence·group conflict·legitimation·Mesoamerica·Mesopotamia·Neolithic Revolution·Peter Turchin·power·priests·Robert Carneiro·rulers·Sergey Gavrilets·shamanic·shamanisms·stratification·succession mechanisms·warfare
