Challenge 1: Origins of Religion

amaranthweiss

Challenge 1: Origins of Religion

Description

As we learned in this week’s lecture materials, there is no single, correct definition of religion. However, anthropologists of religion are often interested in things like…

ritual behavior
explanations (written or oral) of the universe and how it works
the acknowledgement of supernatural forces and beings, such as spirits and deities; souls and the concept of an afterlife – we’ll call this “spiritual thought”
- we learned that humans have a hypersensitive agency-detecting device, which allows us to acknowledge that entities outside of ourselves can have agency; human brains have the ability to understand that we don’t need to see something to know that it might be there and might have agency
- we learned that it is common cross-culturally for humans to induce altered states of consciousness in a ritual context to engage with the spiritual

What were the origins of these ritual behaviors and spiritual ideas? Did early members of our species, Homo sapiens, practice rituals like we do today? What about other hominins (members of the human family tree), such as Homo neanderthalensis? Did they also wonder what exists beyond life on earth and what happens to their loved ones after death? Did our ancestors create stories to answer these questions, and if so, what were they?

Without being able to go back in time and ask, it’s impossible to answer all of these questions for sure. However, we can look to the archaeological record for clues. In this challenge, we will examine six archaeological sites that some archaeologists argue show evidence of ritual behavior or spiritual thought. Each site is attributed to either Homo sapiens or Homo neanderthalensis. Based on the evidence provided, what do you think the hominins were doing and thinking at each site?

Your Challenge

Step 1: Create a list of research questions to help you assess the sites. If you were an archaeologist, what questions would you have? What sorts of evidence would make you think that the people who occupied a site might have engaged in ritual behavior or had ideas about things like supernatural beings, souls, or the afterlife? What is some key information you’d like to collect from each site to help you understand more about the people who spent time there?

Step 2: Using your research questions, assess each site. Go through the clues and images linked in the text below for each of the six sites. You are encouraged to collaborate with a group to complete this challenge, so you might choose to go through all six sites together, or to divide them up and compare notes later.

Step 3: Compare your notes across all six sites or compare the notes of everyone in your group if you worked collaboratively. What patterns emerged? Which sites do you think have the most compelling evidence for ritual behavior and spiritual thought? Why? Submit your answers in Canvas > ASB 214 > Assignments > Challenge 1.