At the start of my anthropology of religion course, I ask students to “explain” religion: Why do you think it exists? What do you think it does? The majority will usually give answers along existential lines: “Religion provides purpose and consolation. It gives meaning to life and relieves fear of death.”
These answers aren’t surprising given [...]
Tags:afterlife·Ernest Becker·existential angst·fear of death·immortality·Irvin Yalom·Ivan Ilyich·Leo Tolstoy·meaning of life·mortality·nihilism·purpose of life·Stephen Cave
It is well known that the modern world religions which trace their origins to the Axial Age are centrally concerned with death. Some might call this concern an obsession. Of these world religions, only Hinduism does not have Axial roots. This is not to say that “Hinduism” (which is neither singular nor unified) was unaffected [...]
Tags:afterlife·ancestors·axial age·Brahmins·Buddhism·death·deification·Denial of Death·dying·Ernest Becker·existential·Hindu·Hinduism·immortality·impurity·India·Jainism·Kali·psychoanalysis·purity·rebirth·reincarnation·Sanskrit·Stuart Blackburn·thanatos·Vedic·Wendy Doniger·world rejecting
In many books and articles addressing the origins of “religious” behavior, one will find the assertion that deliberate burials are indicative of soul beliefs and that because people began burying the dead approximately 100,000 years ago, this marks the beginning of what we today call religion. As I noted in this post, there are several [...]
Tags:afterlife·afterlife beliefs·burials·commonsense dualism·deliberate burials·fox·foxes·funerary·grave goods·guardian spirit·Jordan·Levant·Lisa Maher·mortuary·Native Americans·Natufian·pre-Natufian·Russia·social complexity·social organization·soul·spirit·Sunghir·Sungir·Upper Paleolithic·Uyun al-Hammam·vision·vision quest
In just a few days the British Museum will open its much anticipated Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead Exhibition. I have always thought that one of the best arguments in favor of Ernest Becker’s thesis in The Denial of Death is the historical and cultural fact of ancient Egypt.
While it is hard to agree [...]
Tags:afterlife·ancestors·Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead·book of the dead·British Museum·death anxiety·Egyptian religion·Ernest Becker·guide to afterlife·heaven·papyri·paradise·scrolls·soul beliefs·The Denial of Death·Vanessa Thorpe
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 [...]
Tags:afterlife·axes·barrows·celts·complex hunter-gatherers·cosmology·European archaeology·flints·folk beliefs·grave goods·hominid evolution·Homo antecessor·Homo heidelbergensis·Homo neanderthalensis·Iron Age·Kate Ravilious·Kwakiutl·magic·megaliths·mesolithic·mortuary practices·mythology·myths·Neanderthals·oldest house in Britain·pagans·ritual objects·ritualism·Romans·Sean Coughlan·sedentism·shamanist·shamans·soul·spirit·Stone Age·superstition·talismans·thunderstones·Upper Paleolithic·Vikings
As many know, Christopher Hitchens (the cheeky British gadfly of God) has esophageal cancer. Although he announced this and took a break to undergo treatment, I noticed last week he had resumed writing some columns. Yesterday, I found this recent video interview over at The Atlantic; it is simultaneously heart-wrenching and moving.
It is heart-wrenching because [...]
Tags:afterlife·atheist·cancer·Christopher Hitchens·David Hume·deathbed·gadfly of God·God is Not Great·Hitch-22·immortality·James Boswell·Jeffrey Goldberg·prayer·Samuel Johnston·Scottish Enlightenment·The Atlantic·video interview
There is perhaps no better way to demystify something than to perform a genealogical operation on it. The intellectual genealogy was pioneered by Nietzsche (On the Genealogy of Morals) and used to great effect by Foucault (The Archaeology of Knowledge and The Order of Things). Elaine Pagels, a professor of religion at Harvard, employs this [...]
There are several possible explanations for the widespread belief in an afterlife (the simplest being that people are taught this and believe it), but one that has gained considerable traction is the “near death experience” or NDE. Though I have never researched the issue, I know that NDEs have certain commonalities such as seeing bright [...]
