Unlike living organisms, cultural formations do not “evolve.” Evolution, sensu stricto, is a biological process and not a cultural one. Despite this fact, some scholars have fruitfully deployed evolutionary ideas — as analogy and metaphor — to analyze cultural history.
In 1964 the sociologist Robert Bellah did just this in his classic paper, Religious Evolution. Taking [...]
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Until recently, I was unaware of the fact that Norway plays host to several of the most extreme metal bands in the world. These guys do not just play unbearable music while wearing hellish costumes; unlike most dark metal bands, they take their ideas seriously and live accordingly. They have burned many churches in Norway [...]
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Over at Spiegel, Matthias Schulz reports on a “sensational” archaeological find in Northern Germany. In 808 CE, King Gottrik of Denmark ordered the construction of the longest earthwork in Europe. It was approximately 19 miles long and had only a single gate (the “Danevirke”), which archaeologists are now excavating.
This was a turbulent time in Europe, [...]
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Archaeologists working in Europe have it good, really good. Depending on one’s interests, you can research just about anything. Paleoanthropologists can work on hominid evolution (i.e., Homo heidelbergensis, H. antecessor, H. neanderthalensis), while their colleagues can study a host of fascinating subjects, including the Upper Paleolithic transition, mesolithic hunter-gatherers, incipient agriculturalists, and the usual smattering [...]
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