Cris
MY BLOGS
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Genealogy of Religion
http://genealogyreligion.net/
Exploring the Origins, History, and Future of Religion
LATEST ARTICLES ( 560 )
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Visions of Ruth Benedict
When it comes to classic anthropology, Margaret Mead may garner the lionesses’ share of attention but Ruth Benedict remains the matriarch. Although Benedict... Read more
Posted on 25 August 2011 CULTURE, HISTORY, RELIGION -
Chinese Religion Redux
As Cold War propaganda in the West would have it, communist states were to be despised because they were atheist and Godless. The reality, however, was quite... Read more
Posted on 23 August 2011 CULTURE, DEBATE, HISTORY, RELIGION -
Methodology & “Evolution of Religion”
Over the past decade several books and articles have appeared which purport to explain the “evolution of religion” as an adaptation, usually invoking group leve... Read more
Posted on 21 August 2011 BIOLOGY, BOOKS, DEBATE, HISTORY, RELIGION -
Chinese Religion: Worship Thy Parents
There are many ways in which China remains a cipher for Westerners, most of whom labor under the misapprehension that “modern civilization” originated in ancien... Read more
Posted on 19 August 2011 BIOLOGY, CULTURE, DEBATE, HISTORY, RELIGION -
Robert Bellah on Religious Evolution
In less than a month, we will be able to lay our hands on Robert Bellah’s much anticipated Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age. Read more
Posted on 18 August 2011 BOOKS, CULTURE, RELIGION -
Judge and Be Judged
In polite American company, it is considered impolitic to declare that a presidential candidate should be disqualified by his or her religion. Perhaps this is... Read more
Posted on 15 August 2011 DEBATE, POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY -
Rick Warren Nuggets
Over at Slate, Rob Blackhurst examines the secrets to Rick Warren’s success. Warren helms one of the largest churches in the US and has sold upwards of 50... Read more
Posted on 14 August 2011 CULTURE, DEBATE -
Meet New Shaman, Same as Old Shaman
Sometimes getting fooled again is good for you, as in healing good. Shamans have been healing people for tens of thousands of years, using their considerable... Read more
Posted on 11 August 2011 BIOLOGY, CULTURE, DEBATE, HISTORY, RELIGION -
Onward, German Christian Soldiers
The German Interior Minister was recently interviewed by Spiegel. It begins with a nice example of the “authenticity” error (i.e., my understanding of the... Read more
Posted on 09 August 2011 CULTURE, DEBATE, HISTORY -
No Religions Are New: “Everything is a Remix”
In my anthropology of religion course, one of the main themes is that all religions have histories and nothing is ever really new. There is in other words a... Read more
Posted on 07 August 2011 CULTURE, DEBATE, RELIGION -
“Spirituality” as Evolutionary Byproduct
A friend recently pointed me to Michael Graziano’s article “Is Spirituality a Byproduct of Evolution?” Because it is posted over at Huff or Fluff-Po, I was... Read more
Posted on 05 August 2011 DEBATE, RELIGION, SCIENCE -
Catching Theodicy
Over at Slate, Ron Rosenbaum reads Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 through the lens of theodicy. Like many who view metaphysicians with a combination of bemusement an... Read more
Posted on 03 August 2011 BOOKS, DEBATE -
Contra Deus Ex Machina
In Ars Poetica (“The Art of Poetry”), the great Roman lyricist Horace counsels against using gods to resolve thorny plots. The deus ex machina is simply too tid... Read more
Posted on 30 July 2011 CULTURE, DEBATE, HISTORY -
Barely Controlled Ritual
“I would suggest that, among other things, ritual represents the creation of a controlled environment where the variables (i.e. Read more
Posted on 27 July 2011 CULTURE, HISTORY -
The Promise and Tragedy of Ur
There was a time when Western classicists and metaphysicians searched high and low for the primordial or original religion: Ur-monotheismus. The thinking was... Read more
Posted on 25 July 2011 CULTURE, DEBATE, HISTORY, RELIGION -
The Mysterian: Teilhard De Chardin
The priest and paleontologist was present at the beginning, more or less. When the hoaxed Piltdown “fossils” were discovered in 1912 and the “Peking Man” (Homo... Read more
Posted on 22 July 2011 BIOLOGY, CULTURE, DEBATE, HISTORY, RELIGION -
Human Head Soup in Upper Paleolithic
Head cheese may not be for everyone but it has an intensely devoted following. Most head cheese recipes call for the removal of brain, eyes, and ears before... Read more
Posted on 16 July 2011 HISTORY -
Beheading the “Snake God” at Rhino Cave
Indiana Jones would have loved it: 65,000 years ago, stone age hunters in Africa gathered at night in a hidden cave to worship the giant rock snake that seemed... Read more
Posted on 10 July 2011 BIOLOGY, CULTURE, HISTORY, RELIGION -
Slipknot Shaman
Over at Live Science, Owen Jarus reports on a visually stunning and spooky mask recently discovered in Pennsylvania: The lead archaeologist thinks the mask date... Read more
Posted on 09 July 2011 CULTURE, HISTORY -
Axial Aspects of Scientology
Over at Slate Jessica Grose has posted an interview with Rolling Stone writer Janet Reitman and author of Inside Scientology. For those who have yet to learn ho... Read more
Posted on 08 July 2011 CULTURE, DEBATE, RELIGION