One of the fantastic and daunting things about a project which seeks to comprehend “religion” in its historical entirety and cultural variety is that it’s impossible to read everything. The field for this kind of project is enormous and is touched upon, in one way or another, by nearly every discipline in the academy. This [...]
Tags:ecological anthropology·economic anthropology·Julian Steward·Native Americans·Plains Indians·ritual variation·Ruth Benedict·vision complex·vision quest
I have a confession to make. I’ve long denigrated claims that what we today call “religion” originated during the Upper Paleolithic because early supernaturalism fostered altruism. When this argument makes an appearance, it’s often in the service of an evolutionary theism which assumes that because God is behind evolution, religion is the designed outcome of [...]
Tags:altruism·animism·animist·cosmic economy of sharing·evolutionary theism·foragers·Marshall Sahlins·Nurit Bird-David·Original Affluent Society·relational epistemology·relational rituals
There is a great deal of magic in religion. So much in fact that most anthropologists have rejected the idea that there is any principled distinction between magic and religion. For many, this may be hard to swallow and the rejoinder would be: What Criss Angel does is magic whereas what the Pope does is [...]
Tags:Catholic magic·deception·magical elements of religion·magicians·pope·religion as magic·sensory perception·Teller
The Lion-Man figurine from Hohlenstein-Stadel cave in southwestern Germany is one of the oldest and most spectacular Paleolithic figurines. It is approximately 33,000 years old and was carved from mammoth tusk. When discovered in 1939, it was in hundreds of small pieces which fit together with this result:
This is a splendid example of therianthropy, a [...]
Tags:Elisabeth Schmid·Hohlenstein-Stadel·Joachim Hahn·Lion-Man·Paleolithic art·Paleolithic figurines·ritual object·shamanic·symbolism·therianthrope
In religious studies and popular usage, the term “universal” is used to describe religions which are open to all and transcend ethnic, geographic, political, and cultural boundaries. Three religions are usually cited as universal: Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam. Some newer religions, such as Mormonism and Bahá’í, would also qualify. But if we take a longer [...]
Tags:Bahai·Buddhism·Carmen Blacker·Christianity·Islam·Japan·Jason Josephson·Jomon·kami·Lori Meeks·Meiji period·miko·Mormon·neo-shamanism·premodern Japan·Robert Bellah·shamanic·shamanism·superstitition·The Catalpa Bow·Tokugawa·universal religion
There can be little doubt that fluctuations in consciousness are a major contributing factor to beliefs in the supernatural. Although there are other aspects of mind that are also contributing factors (such as agency detection, theory of mind, causal sequencing, and pattern imposition), one thing that surely would have mystified or perplexed early modern humans [...]
Tags:Aborigines·altered states of consciousness·ASC·Bushmen·dreams·Dreamtime·hallucinations·Iroquois·Jesuit Relations·Plains Indians·psychotropics·San·trance·trance dance·visions
There was a time when Paleolithic cave paintings were construed primarily through the lens of “art,” an interpretive stance which assumes that at least some Paleolithic peoples were “artists” who painted for pleasure. Because this lens is so subjective (and creative), all manner of interpretations were offered. Whether prosaic or fanciful, this approach raised troubling [...]
Tags:altered states of consciousness·art history·ASC·cave art·cave paintings·dark zone art·David Lewis-Williams·doodles·entoptics·flutings·form constants·France·functionalism·hallucination·Jessica Cooney·Kevin Sharpe·Leslie Van Gelder·Paleolithic·petroglyphs·play·ritual·Rouffignac·shamans·symbolism
As regular readers of the blog know, there are profound differences in supernatural beliefs and practices before and after the Neolithic transition. This cleavage is so substantial that I do not use the term “religion” to describe pre-Neolithic or Paleolithic beliefs and practices. Instead, I use the word “supernaturalism” to indicate that Paleolithic peoples were [...]
Tags:agriculture·domestication·farming·foraging·gathering·hunting·Neolithic Revolution·Neolithicization·nomadic·Paleolithic·sedentary·shamanic
The notion of binaries or opposites is deeply entrenched in Western culture and thought. Although it seems perfectly natural to perceive and categorize the world in terms of dichotomies (black-white, either-or), what seems natural is actually learned. Our teacher in this regard is Aristotle, who was so impressed by the Pythagorean Table of Opposites that [...]
Tags:Aborigines·Aristotle·binary·consciousness·David Lewis-Williams·dichotomy·dreams·Dreamtime·hypnagogia·Inside the Neolithic Mind·Lee Irwin·logic·Native American·Plains Indians·rationalism·Table of Opposites·unconsciousness·vision quest·visions
Sometimes getting fooled again is good for you, as in healing good. Shamans have been healing people for tens of thousands of years, using their considerable powers of persuasion and that most efficacious of treatments: placebo.
While shamanic healing methods are varied, there is a great deal of ritual similarity across time and space: trance, sucking, [...]
Tags:Bali·Balian·Balinese healers·cultural tourism·Daniel McGuire·Ketut Liyer·Mangku Pogog·New Age·placebo·ritual healing·shamanic healing·suggestion·traditional healers
