There are many ways to think and write about heavy metal music, but few have tapped its dark heart better than James Parker. Over at The Atlantic, Parker makes the beautifully haunting (or floridly disturbing) case that metal keeps its listeners sane. And he does so in terms that clearly connect it to something deep, [...]
Tags:Black Sabbath·cosmology·demons·depression·Drang·Geezer Butler·heavy metal·James Frazer·James Parker·Ozzy Osbourne·saints·Somerset Maugham·Sturm·subterranean·The Golden Bough·The Razor's Edge·Tommi Iommi
As Charles Choi reports, archaeologist Brian Hayden suggests that the Neolithic domestication of cereals may have been driven by the ritual desire for proto-Budweiser:
[His] argument is that Stone Age farmers were domesticating cereals not so much to fill their stomachs but to lighten their heads, by turning the grains into beer. That has been their [...]
Tags:alcohol·altered states of consciousness·beer·Brian Hayden·cereal grains·Charles Choi·ecstasy·emotions·neolithic·ritual·saints·shamans·Sorcerers
Just the other day, I commented on the origin of ritual and noted that Jonathan Z. Smith sees “the thrill of coincidence” as at least a partial explanation. Before rationalists dismiss this thrill as mere superstition, Smith also notes that the same kind of coincidence resides at the heart of scholarship:
The discovery that two events, [...]
Tags:Africa·Assembly of God·Catholics·charismatics·charms·coincidence·evangelicals·exorcism·Foursquare Gospel·Geoffrey MacDonald·Glimpses of African Belief·indigenous beliefs·Johann Hari·Jonathan Z. Smith·Massachusetts·mediums·pagans·Pentecostals·possession·psychics·ritual·rituals·rosaries·saints·Salem·secret interconnection·spells·spiritual tourism·spiritualism·superstitition·The Gathering·The Masque of Africa·The Vault·transubstantiation·V.S. Naipaul·voodoo·Wicca·witchcraft
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
