Over at HuffPo Religion, John Whitehead has penned a high-minded piece taking Christians to task for failing to understand they are major contributors — given their high divorce rates — to the perceived breakdown of the “traditional” family. I have bracketed “traditional” in the same manner that we should bracket “natural” — these are historical [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Neolithic Revolution'
Genealogy of the “Traditional” Family
August 12th, 2010 · No Comments · Cultural Evolution of Religion, History of Religions, Hunter-Gatherers and Religion, Neolithic Religions
Tags:Christians·D.H. Lawrence·democracy·divorce·epochs·extended family·family·foragers·freedom·human history·John Whitehead·kinship·marriage bond·mystification·Naturalization·Neolithic Revolution·nuclear family·pair bonding·pre-state societies·Roman history·social construction·The Breakdown of the Traditional Family·traditional family
Nationalism as Religion
July 20th, 2010 · No Comments · Civil Religion, Classifications of Religion, Cultural Evolution of Religion, Definitions of Religion, History of Religions, Power and Religion, Recent and New Religions, Ritual and Religion
In a previous post, Religious Wars and Nationalism, I discussed two factors that play a major role in group cohesion. The first factor, which played a dominant role for the majority of human evolution, was extended and fictive kinship. This is what primarily held groups together during the Paleolithic. After the Neolithic Revolution, another factor [...]
Tags:Benedict Anderson·Blood Sacrifice and the Nation: Revisiting Civil Religion·Carolyn Marvin·Civil Religion·David Ingle·Durkheim·group cohesion·group identity·group level selection·guardians of faith·high priests·hymnals·Imagined Communities·kinship·liturgy·nationalism·Neolithic Revolution·Paleolithic·patriotism·patriots·religion·religiosity·religious violence·ritual leaders·ritual objects·Robert Bellah·sacred places·sacred texts·saints·temples·totemism·totems
Stephen Hawking on Religion: “Science Will Win”
July 19th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Archaeology and Religion, Axial Age Religions, Cognition and Religion, Cultural Evolution of Religion, History of Religions, Hunter-Gatherers and Religion, Neolithic Religions, Power and Religion
Over at ABC News, Ki Mae Heussner reports on a Diane Sawyer interview of the renowned physicist Stephen Hawking with this contentious headline: “Stephen Hawking on Religion: Science Will Win.” This is an unfortunate banner. During the interview, Sawyer asked if religion and science could be reconciled. Hawking’s response was profoundly unhelpful:
“There is a fundamental [...]
Tags:animism·anthropomorphic·anthropomorphism·Babylon·Babylonian high god·city-states·Diane Sawyer·earthly kings·gods·Hebrews·hunter-gatherers·Judaism·Ki Mae Heussner·Levant·Mesopotamia·Neolithic Religions·Neolithic Revolution·religion·Roy Rosenberg·science·spirits·spiritual kings·Stephen Hawking·supernatural thinking·Yahweh·Yahweh Becomes King
Recent Human Evolution and Religion
July 6th, 2010 · No Comments · Archaeology and Religion, Cognition and Religion, Cultural Evolution of Religion, Evolution and Selection, Religion as Evolutionary Adaptation, Religion as Evolutionary Byproduct
Most anthropologists date the appearance of anatomically modern Homo sapiens to approximately 150,000 years ago. It was at about this time that the skeletal structure of Homo becomes indistinguishable from modern humans. This does not mean, however, that human evolution simply stopped; evolution encompasses changes not only to skeletal structures but also to brain chemistry, [...]
Tags:accelerated human evolution·anatomically modern Homo sapiens·cultural imprinting·cultural patterning·earliest organized religions·fertility selection·group level selection·John Hawks·Neolithic Revolution·recent adaptations·recent human evolution
Agriculture and the Apocalypse
June 15th, 2010 · No Comments · Cultural Evolution of Religion, Ecology of Religion, Economy and Religion, Hunter-Gatherers and Religion, Shamans and Shamanism
By my reading of history, the turning (or tipping) point for humanity was the domestication of plants and animals, otherwise known as the Neolithic Revolution. Before this occurred — at different places in the world at different times, beginning approximately 12,000 years ago and largely the dominant mode of production by 5,000 years ago — [...]
Tags:agriculture·civilization·demography·disease·domestication of plants and animals·environmental destruction·foragers·hunter-gatherers·Lakota·Marshall Sahlins·Native Americans·Neolithic Revolution·Original Affluent Society·Paleoterrific·Pandora's Seed·Paul Rincon·population explosion·sedentism·sickness·specialization·Spencer Wells·Stone Age Economics·stratification·surplus
Homo Religiosus, Religion, and Fertility: A Conversation with Michael Blume
June 4th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Cognition and Religion, Ecology of Religion, Evolution and Selection, History of Religions, Hunter-Gatherers and Religion, Religion as Evolutionary Adaptation, Religion as Evolutionary Byproduct, Shamans and Shamanism
I recently found an excellent blog, Homo religiosus — The Natural History of Religion, written by the German scholar Dr. Michael Blume. After I linked to his blog, Michael came over here for some reading. He also had a question, which I answered, and he responded. The issue we are discussing — higher fertility rates [...]
Tags:adaptive assumptions·cultural evolution·earliest religions·fertility·group level selection·Homo religiosus·hunter-gatherers·Michael Blume·Neolithic Revolution·Panglossian Paradigm·religion as adaptation·religion as byproduct·reproductive fitness·Richard Lewontin·Sarah Hrdy·shamanisms·shamans·spandrels·Stephen Jay Gould
Sex in the Temples: Fertility Cults in Antiquity
March 27th, 2010 · No Comments · Archaeology and Religion, Cultural Evolution of Religion, Neolithic Religions
As I noted in a previous post, the domestication of plants and animals — a process that began in the Old World approximately 12,000 years ago — led to a seismic shift in the way humans live. Although this process is often described as the “Neolithic Revolution,” this phrase incorrectly suggests there was a sudden [...]
Why “Neolithic Religions”?
February 12th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Neolithic Religions
Perhaps the single most important development in the history of humanity was the domestication of plants and animals. This process began approximately 12,000 years ago and is sometimes referred to as the “Neolithic Revolution.” Other than hominid evolution itself, no process has so profoundly influenced human history and culture. The shift from food gathering to [...]