Genealogy of Religion

Exploring the Origins, History and Future of Religion

Entries Tagged as 'Neolithic Revolution'

Göbekli Tepe: Publications & Reports

October 17th, 2011 · 2 Comments · Archaeology, History, Hunter-Gatherers, Neolithic

In 1994 Klaus Schmidt discovered Göbekli Tepe and in 1995 he began the ongoing excavations. In 1998 Schmidt published his first site report. To date, Schmidt has published close to 20 articles or reports (about half of which are in German) and others working with Schmidt have published more. For this Schmidt deserves considerable praise. [...]

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Göbekli Tepe: The Claims

October 14th, 2011 · 2 Comments · Archaeology, History, Hunter-Gatherers, Neolithic

Göbekli Tepe has received more press coverage in recent years than perhaps any other archaeological site, including Stonehenge. Some of this coverage is due to the simple fact that Göbekli is the oldest megalithic site in the world. For this reason alone, it deserves our attention. It seems, however, that much of this attention has [...]

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Göbekli Tepe: Series Introduction

October 12th, 2011 · 4 Comments · Archaeology, History, Hunter-Gatherers, Neolithic, Ritual

The 11,000 year old archaeological site of Göbekli Tepe in southern Turkey is undoubtedly one of the most important in the world.  German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt began the ongoing excavations at Göbekli in 1994. Besides being a huge undertaking (less than 5% of the site has been uncovered), the finds — and claims associated with [...]

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Open Access Articles on Neolithic Transition

September 22nd, 2011 · 1 Comment · Hunter-Gatherers, Neolithic, Shamanism

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 [...]

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Robert Bellah on Religious Evolution

August 18th, 2011 · No Comments · Axial Age, Cultural Evolution, History, Neolithic

In less than a month, we will be able to lay our hands on Robert Bellah’s much anticipated Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age.

It will be the latest in a string of books over the last decade which purport to explain the origins and development of what we today call [...]

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Interrogating Richard Dawkins

March 2nd, 2011 · 2 Comments · Atheism, Cognition, Cultural Evolution, Evolution

Over at Spiegel, Markus Becker and Frank Patalong have posted an interview with Richard Dawkins, whose latest book — The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution — has just been published in German and given an awful title: “The Creation Lie: Why Darwin is Right.” Two things come immediately to mind.
First, it is [...]

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Early Complex Societies & Early Organized Religions

February 4th, 2011 · 2 Comments · Archaeology, History, Neolithic, Power

Historians have long known that the shelf life of complex societies throughout human history has been rather limited. Archaeologists are aware of this also. But how to explain it?
In a recent (open access) paper, “Cycling in the Complexity of Early Societies,” Sergey Gavrilets and colleagues mathematically modeled early complex societies using a number of variables [...]

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Shrinking Brains & Domestication of the Supernatural

December 29th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Cognition, Cultural Evolution, History, Hunter-Gatherers, Neolithic, Shamanism

In the September issue of Discover, Kathleen McAuliffe has written a superb article on the shrinking human brain.  Razib commented on it yesterday:
For several millions years up to ~200,000 years ago there was a study increase in hominin cranial capacities. I say hominin because it seems that this increase was evident in all branches of [...]

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Druids Granted Status of “Religion”

October 4th, 2010 · No Comments · Classifications, Definitions, History, Neolithic, Pagans

The British government has, after a lengthy vetting process, recognized Druidism or Druidry as a religion and granted it charitable status.  The commissioners in charge of such decisions apparently had a hard time getting their collective heads around the idea that not all religions are monotheistic, textual, dogmatic, priestly, hierarchical, institutionalized, or systematic.
As the Toronto [...]

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Our Non-Sustainable Hunter-Gatherer Ancestors

October 2nd, 2010 · 2 Comments · Archaeology, Ecology, History, Hunter-Gatherers, Neolithic, Shamanism

Over at the Guardian, the archaeologist Caroline Wickham-Jones has written an enigmatic article asking “What Can We Learn from Our Hunter-Gatherer Ancestors.”  While I think there is a great deal to be learned from our foraging ancestors, the existential and ontological lessons I have in mind are quite different from those Wickham-Jones proposes.
She begins by [...]

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