In evolutionary biology, few issues have caused more debate than altruism or what appears to be altruism. It is generally accepted that selection operates on individual organisms and that these organisms are selfishly interested in their own survival and reproduction. Another way of stating this is that individual organisms are interested solely in passing along [...]
Tags:altruism·archetypal·Carl Jung·cooperation·coyote·culture hero·David Sloan Wilson·E.O. Wilson·Elliot Sober·Franz Boas·George Price·George Williams·group level selection·inclusive fitness·Jerry Coyne·John Maynard Smith·Kantian·kin selection·kindness·Mac Linscott Ricketts·metaphysics·Michael Carroll·multilevel selection·mythology·Native Americans·Oren Harman·Paul Radin·reciprocal altruism·Richard Dawkins·Robert Trivers·selfish genes·selfishness·The Price of Altruism·Trickster·unit of selection·William Hamilton
Ritual and religion are, as everyone knows, closely intertwined. So tightly linked are they that some scholars, such as Emile Durkheim, seem to have mistaken one for the other or at least conflated the two. For those who cannot accept Durkheim’s position, there are two competing explanations for the origin of ritual. The first is [...]
Tags:anxiety·augury·autoeroticism·Barbara Smuts·causal illusion·college football gods·college football religion·confession·corn husking·Cornhuskers·costly signaling·David Hume·Emile Durkheim·football·gods·guilt·Huskers·Immanuel Kant·John Watanabe·Jonathan Z. Smith·Joseph Bulbulia·male baboons·masturbation·mythology·narcissism·Nebraska·Nebraska Fan's Confession·omen·Onan·onanism·propitious coincidence·randomly connected events·Richard Sosis·ritual·ritualized greetings·rituals·Roman ritual·Roy Rappaport·serendipity·solipsism·Superstitition in the Pigeon·The Bare Facts of Ritual·thrill of coincidence
In a previous post, I outlined what the sociologist Robert Bellah calls “civil religion,” and its elaboration by Carolyn Martin and David Ingle in their classic article, “Blood Sacrifice and the Nation: Revisiting Civil Religion.” Now, Lexington over at The Economist has posted on “The Perils of Constitution Worship.” Lexington notes that Americans in general [...]
Tags:Blood Sacrifice and the Nation·Carolyn Martin·Civil Religion·David Ingle·deification·founding fathers·Lexington·mythology·nationalism·original intent·Robert Bellah·sacred national texts·Tea Party·The Perils of Constitution Worship
Although it seems odd on the surface, coyotes play a major role in Native American ceremonies, mythology, legend, and cosmology. Of all the magnificent animals from which they could choose — wolf, bear, bison, eagle — why the coyote?
Given that Native Americans were renowned for their knowledge of animal behaviors, one thing is certain: there [...]
Tags:Amerindian ethnohistory·Apache·Carol Kaesuk Yoon·Cheyenne outbreak·Comanche·cosmology·coyote·Coyote at the Kitchen Door·coyotes·Crazy Horse·Creator·Dull Knife·First Americans·Ft. Robinson·Mysteries that Howl and Hunt·mythology·Native Americans·Trickster
For those interested in traditional or historic Native American cosmologies, supernaturalism, rituals, and religions, the most prolific and authoritative researcher is Ake Hultkrantz, the Swedish cultural anthropologist and professor of comparative religions at the University of Stockholm who passed away in 2006.
It has always seemed a bit odd that the primary authority in this vast [...]
Tags:Ake Hultkrantz·Amerindians·Arapaho·Arapahoe·comparative religions·cosmogony·cosmology·ethnohistory·ethnology·First Americans·Gifford Lectures·mythology·Native Americans·Natural Theology·religions·rituals·Shoshone·Shoshoni·supenaturalism·Swedish cultural anthropologist·The Religions of the American Indians
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 the new and organized forms of religion associated with the Neolithic Revolution matured and proliferated, various forms of polytheism spread throughout Mesopotamia, the Levant, the Mediterranean, and Europe. A diverse pantheon of gods and goddesses spawned a remarkable array of religious cults and practices that today are called “pagan,” the best known forms of [...]
Tags:cults·mythology·pagan·polytheism
