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Genealogy of Religion
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Originus
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- May 4, 2012
- 12:10 PM
- 115 views
Research Riches & Plains Visions
by Cris Campbell in Genealogy of Religion
One of the fantastic and daunting things about a project which seeks to comprehend “religion” in its historical entirety and cultural variety is that it’s impossible to read everything. The field for this kind of project is enormous and is touched upon, in one way or another, by nearly every discipline in the academy. This [...]... Read more »
Albers, Patricia, & Parker, Seymour. (1971) The Plains Vision Experience: A Study of Power and Privilege. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 27(3), 203-233. info:/
- April 13, 2012
- 05:26 PM
- 219 views
Myth of Pristine “Primitive” Religions
by Cris Campbell in Genealogy of Religion
Scholars have long been fascinated by the idea that something like the primordial or original religion existed until recently and may in fact be curated by a few people even today. If such “religions” could be identified, scholars hoped they could sketch the historical development or genealogy of religions. For old-time cultural evolutionists this amounted [...]... Read more »
Charlesworth, Max. (2009) Anthropological Approaches to "Primitive" Religions. Sophia, 48(2), 119-125. DOI: 10.1007/s11841-009-0096-5
Eliade, Mircea. (1966) Australian Religions: An Introduction. Part I. History of Religions, 6(2), 108. DOI: 10.1086/462538
- April 7, 2012
- 05:43 PM
- 141 views
Hominin Meat on Allopatric Speciation Bones
by Matt & Cris in Originus
It is a curious fact that one of the more powerful mechanisms for explaining allopatric speciation — that climate change …Continue reading »... Read more »
Stewart, J., & Stringer, C. (2012) Human Evolution Out of Africa: The Role of Refugia and Climate Change. Science, 335(6074), 1317-1321. DOI: 10.1126/science.1215627
Mayr, E., & O'Hara, R. (1986) The Biogeographic Evidence Supporting the Pleistocene Forest Refuge Hypothesis. Evolution, 40(1), 55. DOI: 10.2307/2408603
- April 6, 2012
- 03:50 PM
- 163 views
Cross Cultural Glossolalia: Babeling
by Cris Campbell in Genealogy of Religion
Glossolalia or “speaking in tongues” is known primarily from charismatic Christian churches. In that setting it has been studied extensively with some remarkable findings. In Tower of Linguistic Babel, I examined one of those studies and noted some curious features of “tongues” or glossas:
They are always derivative of the speakers’ native language. In other words, [...]... Read more »
May, L. Carlyle. (1956) A Survey of Glossolalia and Related Phenomena in Non-Christian Religions. American Anthropologist, 58(1), 75-96. DOI: 10.1525/aa.1956.58.1.02a00060
Goodman, Felicitas. (1969) Phonetic Analysis of Glossolalia in Four Cultural Settings. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 8(2), 227. DOI: 10.2307/1384336
Samarin, William. (1968) The Linguisticality of Glossolalia. Hartford Quarterly, 8(4), 49-75. info:/
- March 29, 2012
- 03:08 PM
- 175 views
Animism as Altruistic Adaptation
by Cris Campbell in Genealogy of Religion
I have a confession to make. I’ve long denigrated claims that what we today call “religion” originated during the Upper Paleolithic because early supernaturalism fostered altruism. When this argument makes an appearance, it’s often in the service of an evolutionary theism which assumes that because God is behind evolution, religion is the designed outcome of [...]... Read more »
Bird‐David, Nurit. (1999) “Animism” Revisited: Personhood, Environment, and Relational Epistemology. Current Anthropology, 40(S1). DOI: 10.1086/200061
Bird-David, Nurit. (1992) Beyond "The Original Affluent Society": A Culturalist Reformulation. Current Anthropology, 33(1), 25-34. info:/
- March 21, 2012
- 12:13 PM
- 159 views
Science Integrators
by Matt & Cris in Originus
Andrew Moore, editor in chief of BioEssays, recently published a piece that makes so much sense it will probably never …Continue reading »... Read more »
Moore, Andrew. (2012) Have we produced enough results yet, sir?. BioEssays, 34(3), 163-163. DOI: 10.1002/bies.201290005
- March 15, 2012
- 05:58 PM
- 258 views
Red Deer Cave People — A New “Species” from China?
by Matt & Cris in Originus
Only those living in a cave could have missed yesterday’s announcement of a possible new human species, the “Red Deer …Continue reading »... Read more »
Curnoe, D., Xueping, J., Herries, A., Kanning, B., Taçon, P., Zhende, B., Fink, D., Yunsheng, Z., Hellstrom, J., Yun, L.... (2012) Human Remains from the Pleistocene-Holocene Transition of Southwest China Suggest a Complex Evolutionary History for East Asians. PLoS ONE, 7(3). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0031918
- March 9, 2012
- 12:26 PM
- 215 views
New Evidence for Neanderthal Symbolism?
by Matt & Cris in Originus
Two days ago my twitter stream lit up with the exciting news that Neanderthals were using symbols 90,000 years ago. …Continue reading »... Read more »
Morin, E., & Laroulandie, V. (2012) Presumed Symbolic Use of Diurnal Raptors by Neanderthals. PLoS ONE, 7(3). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0032856
- March 6, 2012
- 04:13 PM
- 198 views
Encultured Hallucinations
by Cris Campbell in Genealogy of Religion
Hallucinations are a universal feature of human experience. This doesn’t mean that everyone has hallucinated, but everyone is capable of hallucinating. If hallucinations can be managed, the effects range from enlightening to fun. If hallucinations are uncontrolled, the effects range from psychosis to terror. In most cases, expectations are the key to management [...]... Read more »
Luhrmann, Tanya. (2011) Hallucinations and Sensory Overrides. Annual Review of Anthropology, 71-85. info:/10.1146/annurev-anthro-081309-145819
- February 24, 2012
- 03:01 PM
- 211 views
This Old Hut (Gimme Shelter)
by Matt & Cris in Originus
Humans have been seeking shelter for a long time. While caves sometimes provided it, the idea that caves were the …Continue reading »... Read more »
Maher, L., Richter, T., Macdonald, D., Jones, M., Martin, L., & Stock, J. (2012) Twenty Thousand-Year-Old Huts at a Hunter-Gatherer Settlement in Eastern Jordan. PLoS ONE, 7(2). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0031447
- February 22, 2012
- 04:35 PM
- 199 views
Human Evolutionary Storytelling
by Matt & Cris in Originus
In evolutionary science, storytelling is suspect. This is due, in large part, to the proliferation of “just so” stories which …Continue reading »... Read more »
Landau, Misia. (1984) Human Evolution as Narrative: Have Hero Myths and Folktales Influenced Our Interpretations of the Evolutionary Past?. American Scientist, 72(3), 262-268. info:/
- February 17, 2012
- 02:29 PM
- 257 views
Vanquishing the Soul: Gall & Phrenology
by Cris Campbell in Genealogy of Religion
Thinking is a strange thing. So strange, in fact, that most people think that whatever is doing the thinking must have a life of its own. This idea, commonsense dualism, has been around a long time and is the default position for most people regardless of culture. It’s a hard habit or intuition to break, [...]... Read more »
McLaren, Angus. (1974) Phrenology: Medium and Message. The Journal of Modern History, 46(1), 86. DOI: 10.1086/241166
Castro-Caldas, A., & Grafman, J. (2000) Those Were the (Phrenological) Days. The Neuroscientist, 6(4), 297-302. DOI: 10.1177/107385840000600412
McLaren Angus. (1981) A prehistory of the social sciences: phrenology in France. Comparative studies in society and history, 23(1), 3-22. PMID: 11614370
- February 12, 2012
- 03:28 PM
- 204 views
Big Brains in Evolutionary History
by Matt & Cris in Originus
In 1985 I visited the Soviet Union with a small group of Austrian tourists (I was studying in Vienna at …Continue reading »... Read more »
Gross, C. (1993) Huxley versus Owen: the hippocampus minor and evolution. Trends in Neurosciences, 16(12), 493-498. DOI: 10.1016/0166-2236(93)90190-W
- February 12, 2012
- 02:01 PM
- 273 views
Chemical Ghosts in the Machine
by Cris Campbell in Genealogy of Religion
If we think deeply about evolution, we eventually will ask questions not about the origin of species but about the origin of life. For some theistic evolutionists, this is the point of Designer intervention. They find it hard to imagine that chemicals could combine in way that gives rise to life. For those less inclined [...]... Read more »
Urey, Harold. (1952) On the Early Chemical History of the Earth and the Origin of Life. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 38(4), 351-363. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.38.4.351
Peretó J. (2005) Controversies on the origin of life. International microbiology : the official journal of the Spanish Society for Microbiology, 8(1), 23-31. PMID: 15906258
Joyce, G. (1989) RNA evolution and the origins of life. Nature, 338(6212), 217-224. DOI: 10.1038/338217a0
Orgel LE. (1998) The origin of life--a review of facts and speculations. Trends in biochemical sciences, 23(12), 491-5. PMID: 9868373
- February 8, 2012
- 06:34 PM
- 256 views
All Mixed Up: Julian Jaynes
by Cris Campbell in Genealogy of Religion
In 1976, the polymathic Princeton psychologist Julian Jaynes published The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. It is one of those rare books which is mostly wrong but is filled with so many penetrating and provocative insights that it still deserves to be read. It’s a fun and big idea book [...]... Read more »
Jaynes, Julian. (1986) Consciousness and The Voices of the Mind. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie Canadienne, 27(2), 128-148. DOI: 10.1037/h0080053
- January 27, 2012
- 11:36 AM
- 351 views
Disrupting & Inventing “Religion”
by Cris Campbell in Genealogy of Religion
When I teach my anthropology of religion course the first order of business is to define and disrupt “religion” as a category. I begin by having students identify everything they consider to be “religion.” Our list grows and all the usual suspects make their appearance. After the list has been compiled, we then ask what [...]... Read more »
Josephson, Joseph A. (2011) The Invention of Japanese Religions. Religion Compass, 5(10), 589-597. DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-8171.2011.00307.x
- January 4, 2012
- 02:34 PM
- 349 views
Altruistic Infants Aren’t Little Devils
by Cris Campbell in Genealogy of Religion
Someone forgot to tell a group of 15-month-old infants they are flawed and that without proper (religious or moral) instruction, they will be unfair and selfish. Rather than being born this way, they appear to have been born another way: with built-in expectations of fairness and a willingness to share. These are the conclusions reached [...]... Read more »
Schmidt, Marco, & Sommerville, Jessica. (2011) Fairness Expectations and Altruistic Sharing in 15-Month-Old Human Infants. PLoS ONE, 6(10). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0023223
- December 30, 2011
- 03:45 PM
- 277 views
Structure & Function of Creation Myths
by Cris Campbell in Genealogy of Religion
Creation myths do psychological and cultural work. Because all known societies have creation myths, the number and variety is staggering. There are entire encyclopedias of creation myths and even dictionaries for creation myths. Given this seemingly endless variety, it is unsurprising there have been several kinds of efforts to impose order on the mass. Folklorists [...]... Read more »
Rooth, Anna B. (1957) The Creation Myths of the North American Indians. Anthropos, 52(3/4), 497-508. info:/
- December 20, 2011
- 03:35 PM
- 353 views
Creation Myths: Not Just Stories
by Cris Campbell in Genealogy of Religion
Over the past few weeks I’ve been thinking about creation myths. By calling them “myths” it allows us to overlook, dismiss, or ignore them. This is a mistake. We should think hard about what these myths do and how they work. They are not just quaint relics of a pre-scientific past. They are not just [...]... Read more »
Lewin, Roger. (1988) Man's Place in Nature. The Missouri Review, 11(3), 16-32. info:/
- December 16, 2011
- 11:17 AM
- 1,232 views
Searching for the Elusive God Effect
by Cris Campbell in Genealogy of Religion
Physicists may soon confirm the actual existence of the Higgs boson or God particle. It must exist or their models don’t work and the math is all wrong, which can’t possibly be the case. Or perhaps it can. Stranger things have happened. The elusiveness of the God particle, which is needed for mass to exist, [...]... Read more »
Stark, Rodney. (1984) Religion and Conformity: Reaffirming a Sociology of Religion. Sociological Analysis, 45(4), 273-282. info:/
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