In religious studies and popular usage, the term “universal” is used to describe religions which are open to all and transcend ethnic, geographic, political, and cultural boundaries. Three religions are usually cited as universal: Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam. Some newer religions, such as Mormonism and Bahá’í, would also qualify. But if we take a longer [...]
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It is a well known fact that in many pre-state or small-scale societies where shamanic practices prevail, shamans are expert storytellers and keepers of traditional knowledge. As I noted in a previous post on the evolution of narrative, stories contain information critical for survival.
While reading an article on Inuit shamanism yesterday, this passage offered confirmation:
Shamanic [...]
Tags:animals·arctic·cosmology·foraging·hunter-gatherers·Inuit·Jarich Oosten·narrative·shamanic·shamanism·shamans·social knowledge·storytelling
Over at NPR, Alix Spiegel presents a stimulating piece (which you can listen to or read) that asks: Is Believing in God Evolutionarily Advantageous? It seems to me that framing the question in this way suggests certain answers, all of which are neatly ensconced within Western and modern understandings of what constitutes “religion.” The story’s [...]
Tags:Alix Spiegel·cognitive science of religion·cooperation·Dominic Johnson·ethics·evolution of religion·extended kinship·fictive kinship·Jesse Bering·kinship·morality·Plains Indians·punishment·religion as adaptation·religiosity·shamanism·shamanisms·supernatural agents·surveillance
Many of the recent books and articles about the evolutionary origins of religion claim that natural selection targeted “moral” behaviors and that these behaviors coalesced into “religion.” This is a story told primarily by group level selectionists (who have the bad habit of confusing biological evolution with something they call “cultural evolution”) and evolutionary psychologists [...]
Tags:David Sloan Wilson·Edward Tylor·Frans de Waal·Marc Hauser·Matt Rossano·morality·morals·Nicholas Wade·Rodney Stark·shamanism
It is a fact of political life that some legislative bodies are more august and deliberative than others. While the North Miami Beach City Council probably has substantial expertise and experience dealing with beach regulations and zoning, it is a fish out of water when it comes to constitutional matters involving religion.
As reported in the [...]
Anyone who surveys the “religious” beliefs of hunter-gatherers (or foragers) will almost immediately discover that many of them do not have a word that translates as “religion” and do not understand the Western concept of “religion,” as explained to them by ethnographers and others. Anyone who engages in such a survey will also soon discover [...]
