Genealogy of Religion

Exploring the Origins, History and Future of Religion

Entries Tagged as 'Shamans and Shamanism'

Zion Petroglyphs

September 7th, 2010 · No Comments · Archaeology and Religion, Shamans and Shamanism

A friend just visited Zion National Park in Utah and took some amazing photos of petroglyphs in the backcountry.  Given that these are carved into the rock, there really is no way to date them directly.  I am not sure of the occupational sequence for that area, but there seems to be no reason these [...]

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Acoustic Archaeology & Spiritual Soundscapes

August 27th, 2010 · No Comments · Archaeology and Religion, Ritual and Religion, Shamans and Shamanism

Over at the New Scientist, Trevor Price has written a splendid article about the relatively new and somewhat controversial field of acoustic archaeology.  Although it is easy to see how acoustical interpretations might run amok, the basic ideas are sound (sorry but I just had to) and thought provoking.  It hardly beggars the imagination to [...]

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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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Bourdieu & Symbolic Power: The Archaeology of Proto-Religion

August 22nd, 2010 · No Comments · Archaeology and Religion, Cognition and Religion, History of Religions, Shamans and Shamanism

I just finished reading David Swartz’s superb article, “Bridging the Study of Culture and Religion: Pierre Bourdieu’s Political Economy of Symbolic Power” (open access), and must recommend it not only to cultural theorists but to archaeologists as well.  Several aspects of Bourdieu’s thought lend themselves readily to novel interpretations of what otherwise might appear to [...]

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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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Theology of Religions v. History of Religions

August 18th, 2010 · No Comments · Axial Age Religions, Cultural Evolution of Religion, Definitions of Religion, Evolution and Selection, Neolithic Religions, Shamans and Shamanism

Over at HuffPo Religion, a well meaning Matthew Anderson suggests that all American junior-senior high school students should be required to take a minimum of two classes on world religions so as to be exposed to something other than their parents’ religion.  He supposes that these courses would foster tolerance and lead to a more [...]

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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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The Weather Spirits

August 9th, 2010 · No Comments · Cognition and Religion, Ritual and Religion, Shamans and Shamanism

In a recent post on the quantum aspects of consciousness, I concluded by noting that not so long ago all humans explained weather in supernatural or spiritual terms, but weather is now — in most parts of the world — understood scientifically.  Weather has thus been removed from the realm of the spiritual and situated [...]

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Is “Quantum Consciousness” the Essence of “Spirituality”?

August 2nd, 2010 · No Comments · Classifications of Religion, Cognition and Religion, Definitions of Religion, Methodology of Religion, Philosophy of Religion, Shamans and Shamanism

In “Quantum Consciousness: The Way to Reconcile Science and Spirituality,” Kingsley Dennis elegantly discusses what has proven to the most intractable issue in neuroscience: consciousness.  Because fluctuations and altered states of consciousness are so often linked to the supernatural-religious, I have examined it in many posts, including Consciousness and the Supernatural, which provides a brief [...]

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