Genealogy of Religion

Exploring the Origins, History and Future of Religion

Entries Tagged as 'Paleolithic'

From Paleolithic Diviners to Axial Prophets

October 9th, 2011 · 6 Comments · Archaeology, Axial Age, Hunter-Gatherers, Magic

A person of many astute observations, one of Robert Bellah’s most astute is his refrain (when talking about the history of religions) that “nothing is ever lost.” By this I take Bellah to mean that at any given point in time, an existing religion will contain elements from earlier religions. There is continuity in religious [...]

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Entoptics or Doodles: Children of the Cave

October 1st, 2011 · 10 Comments · Archaeology, Cognition, Ritual, Shamanism

There was a time when Paleolithic cave paintings were construed primarily through the lens of “art,” an interpretive stance which assumes that at least some Paleolithic peoples were “artists” who painted for pleasure. Because this lens is so subjective (and creative), all manner of interpretations were offered. Whether prosaic or fanciful, this approach raised troubling [...]

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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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World’s Oldest Temple & Rorschach Rock

June 27th, 2011 · 5 Comments · Archaeology, Methodology, Ritual

“It has long been recognized that any interpretation of prehistoric religious behavior should be based on concrete archaeological evidence. Yet evidence for Paleolithic belief systems is extremely scanty, and that which does exist is usually enigmatic — or as [Mircea] Eliade has expressed it, semantically opaque” (Freeman & Echegaray 1981).
Three lines of evidence are typically [...]

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Post-Hoc Supernatural Punishers

June 21st, 2011 · 1 Comment · Evolutionary Adaptation, Evolutionary Byproduct, History, Hunter-Gatherers, Neolithic

In the inaugural issue of Religion, Brain & Behavior, Jeffrey Schloss and Michael Murray examine the idea that belief in supernatural agents is adaptive because these agents are punishers: supernatural policeman if you will. This policing can have two effects. First, belief in supernatural punishment can enhance within group cooperation. Second, it can reduce cheating [...]

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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 [...]

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America’s Unknown & Ancient Cave Art

March 21st, 2011 · No Comments · Archaeology, Cognition, Ritual, Shamanism

In a collaborative (subscription seeking) arrangement with the Paris Review, Slate has just published a riveting piece on “America’s Ancient Cave Art” by John Jeremiah Sullivan. Many of these Cumberland and Tennessee Valley caves have been only recently discovered and their locations are largely secret. Except for a small group of Southeastern archaeologists, their existence [...]

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Mural Magic of Mushrooms

March 14th, 2011 · 8 Comments · Archaeology, Cognition, Hunter-Gatherers, Ritual, Shamanism

Cognitive archaeologist David Lewis-Williams has long argued that the spectacular Paleolithic paintings in European caves such Lascaux, Chauvet, and Altamira were created by early shamans who were experiencing altered states of consciousness (“ASC”). Because Paleolithic rock art around the world displays the same types of symbols or form constants, which Lewis-Williams calls “entoptics,” he contends [...]

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Proto-Religious Foragers v. Non-Religious Foragers

February 9th, 2011 · 3 Comments · Archaeology, Evolution, Evolutionary Adaptation, Evolutionary Byproduct, Hunter-Gatherers

In a recent post on group level selection and the evolution of religion, I observed that if we assume such selection was operating on human groups during the Paleolithic, three factors play a major role in determining which groups come out on top. These three factors are: (1) group size, (2) technology, and (3) language. [...]

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The Belief Instinct

February 3rd, 2011 · 9 Comments · Cognition, Evolutionary Adaptation, Evolutionary Byproduct, History, Shamanism

In a few days Jesse Bering’s new book, The Belief Instinct, will be published in the United States. It has already been published in the UK as The God Instinct. The title change seems a bit odd and the opposite of what one might have expected. Something like ninety percent of Americans believe in God, [...]

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