Entries Tagged as 'Shamanism'
Slipknot Shaman
July 9th, 2011 · 5 Comments · Archaeology, Shamanism
Over at Live Science, Owen Jarus reports on a visually stunning and spooky mask recently discovered in Pennsylvania:
The lead archaeologist thinks the mask dates to about 900 AD and may have been used by a shaman. Other archaeologists think the mask may be more recent and aren’t sure whether it was a ritual or personal [...]
Tags:effigy·mask·Owen Jarus·shaman·Slipknot
Twisted Saga of “World’s Oldest Ritual”
June 30th, 2011 · 1 Comment · Archaeology, Methodology, Ritual, Shamanism
In 2006, University of Oslo archaeologist Sheila Coulson gave an open lecture about her work at a small cave in the Tsodilo Hills of northern Botswana. Although her lecture focused on Middle Stone Age tools recovered from the cave and an unusual rock formation that looked to her like a snake or python, she also [...]
Tags:Africa·Alec Campbell·Botswana·Bushmen·cupules·George Brook·Larry Robbins·Michael Murphy·Middle Stone Age·Nyame Akuma·oldest religion·oldest ritual·python·Python Cave·Rhino Cave·sacrifice·San·Sheila Coulson·snake·Stanley Ambrose·Tsodilo Hills·worship
Cloned Neanderthal Religion
June 24th, 2011 · 4 Comments · Cognition, Hunter-Gatherers, Shamanism
Over at the Guardian, Andrew Brown asks if we should clone Neanderthals (assuming it could be done). For me, the easy answer is no.
Brown then asks a series of nonsensical questions which imply that because Neanderthal brains were different from human brains (Neanderthals in fact had bigger brains than humans; the difference is in shape), [...]
Tags:acculturation·Andrew Brown·Anglican·Buddhist·Christian·cloned Neanderthal·cloning·culture·enculturation·heresy·heretics·Hindu·monotheism·Muslim·myth·Neandertal·religious exclusivism·religious pluralism·Richard Dawkins·ritual form·shamanic·shamanisms·social construction·Upper Paleolithic
Lab Research, Meet Ethnohistory
June 12th, 2011 · 13 Comments · History, Hunter-Gatherers, Shamanism
In labs around the world, researchers interested in the “evolution of religion” or cognitive science of religion are conducting experiments that tell us something about how supernatural beliefs initially may have arisen and subsequently been the target of selection. While we are accumulating lots of interesting data and the results are revealing, these studies will [...]
Tags:Apsaroke·burials·Bushmen·David Lewis-Williams·entoptics·ethnography·ethnohistory·Hadza·Harvard Kalahari Project·John H. Moore·neolithic·Paleolithic·Robert Lowie·San·The Cheyenne·The Crow Indians
Religious Evolution: Sami Sticks & Phoenician Stones
May 28th, 2011 · No Comments · Classifications, Cultural Evolution, History, Hunter-Gatherers, Pagans, Ritual, Shamanism
Unlike living organisms, cultural formations do not “evolve.” Evolution, sensu stricto, is a biological process and not a cultural one. Despite this fact, some scholars have fruitfully deployed evolutionary ideas — as analogy and metaphor — to analyze cultural history.
In 1964 the sociologist Robert Bellah did just this in his classic paper, Religious Evolution. Taking [...]
Tags:animism·Arabs·Black Stone·Christianity·cult practice·cultural evolution·Eric Voegelin·Eugene Stockton·Ingela Bergman·Islam·kaaba·landscapes·modern religion·multilinear·Norse·objects·pagans·pantheism·Phoenician·polytheism·primitive religion·religious evolution·religious stages·Robert Bellah·rocks·sacred·Sami·shamanic·stones·symbol systems·typology·unilinear·varro muorra·veneration·Vikings·wood
Gay Cavemen & Buried Shamans
April 10th, 2011 · No Comments · Archaeology, Hunter-Gatherers, Ritual, Shamanism
This past week, British newspapers carried sensational headlines about an archaeological find in Prague: “First Homosexual Caveman Found” (The Telegraph) and “Oldest Gay in the Village: 5,000 Year Old is ‘Outed’ By the Way He Was Buried” (Daily Mail). Although the assemblage in question has not been published in a journal, the archaeologists called a [...]
Tags:berdache·Bone Girl·Corded Ware·Cordware culture·Daily Mail·deliberate burials·gay caveman·gender·grave goods·homosexual caveman·Kristina Killgrove·Leore Grosman·Levant·middle range theory·Natufian·Neolithic farmer·Prague·sexual orientation·shaman graves·soul beliefs·Telegraph·third gender·transgender·transvestite·Two Spirits
Guns & Decline of Hunting Magic
April 6th, 2011 · No Comments · Hunter-Gatherers, Magic, Ritual, Shamanism
This statement from an Inuit elder reveals the logic of hunting magic:
Now that we have firearms it is almost as if we no longer need shamans, or taboo, for now it is not so difficult to procure food as in the old days. Then we had to laboriously hunt the caribou at the sacred crossing [...]
Tags:amulets·game spirits·hunting·hunting magic·Inuit·magic·ritual·shamans·taboo
Shamans as Storytellers
April 5th, 2011 · No Comments · Hunter-Gatherers, Shamanism
It is a well known fact that in many pre-state or small-scale societies where shamanic practices prevail, shamans are expert storytellers and keepers of traditional knowledge. As I noted in a previous post on the evolution of narrative, stories contain information critical for survival.
While reading an article on Inuit shamanism yesterday, this passage offered confirmation:
Shamanic [...]
Tags:animals·arctic·cosmology·foraging·hunter-gatherers·Inuit·Jarich Oosten·narrative·shamanic·shamanism·shamans·social knowledge·storytelling
Southern Death Cult: Data & Meaning
March 23rd, 2011 · No Comments · Archaeology, Hunter-Gatherers, Methodology, Power, Shamanism
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