The roots of religion | Genvieve Von Petzinger | TEDxVictoria
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0:07 - 0:08We live in a world
-
0:08 - 0:12that is absolutely infused
with religion and spirituality, -
0:12 - 0:15sometimes even to the point
where maybe we don't recognize it. -
0:15 - 0:19It affects everything from something
as simple as the holidays we celebrate, -
0:19 - 0:21to the names that we give our children,
-
0:21 - 0:24to something much more really
saddening and sort of disheartening, -
0:24 - 0:27which is finding a conflict
on the other side of the world somewhere. -
0:27 - 0:29I mean, any given day,
-
0:29 - 0:33somewhere somebody is fighting
about spirituality and religion. -
0:34 - 0:38So, let's take a look at how this all
plays out then on a global scale. -
0:38 - 0:41Depending on whom you talk to,
there's about 20 major world religions - -
0:41 - 0:46so, these are ones that are in more
than one country, more than one continent. -
0:46 - 0:48Add to that hundreds of belief systems,
-
0:48 - 0:53and out of the 7 billion people who live
on this planet at this point in time, -
0:53 - 0:57just under 6 billion profess
to follow some sort of faith. -
0:57 - 1:01Now, I want you to try and imagine
a world with no religion. -
1:01 - 1:03What would it look like?
-
1:03 - 1:05Because that is the reality,
-
1:05 - 1:09is if we go far enough back
into our own deep history, -
1:09 - 1:13there was a time, maybe not
with Homo sapiens, maybe further back, -
1:13 - 1:15where we didn't have any religion.
-
1:15 - 1:18So, as you can see in the slide behind me,
-
1:18 - 1:20that's a very simplified
evolutionary chart, -
1:20 - 1:23but it's a question that people
in my field, palaeoanthropology, -
1:23 - 1:27have asked: How far back
does the religious impulse go? -
1:27 - 1:30And how would you get at that?
It's incredibly subjective, right? -
1:30 - 1:33So, obviously Homo sapiens at the top.
-
1:33 - 1:36We know that Homo sapiens
have religion, that's us. -
1:36 - 1:39But, what about heidelbergensis
before us, and erectus, -
1:39 - 1:41and all the way back to Homo habilis.
-
1:41 - 1:44You know, Homo habilis
2.5 million years ago, -
1:44 - 1:48they're considered to be a good candidate
for the original toolmakers. -
1:48 - 1:52And you might wonder - tools, religion,
what do these potentially have in common? -
1:52 - 1:58But, if you actually think about
what kind of leap making tools is, -
1:58 - 2:00there are some things in common.
-
2:00 - 2:03For instance, when you're
actually making a tool - -
2:03 - 2:07so you've got one piece of stone
and you've got another to shape it - -
2:07 - 2:09you have to hold a mental template
in your head -
2:09 - 2:12of what that finished product
is going to look like. -
2:12 - 2:15And also what we find
with these early toolmakers, -
2:15 - 2:20is that they actually were exhibiting
forethought and pre-planning. -
2:20 - 2:22They were taking
a piece of flint with them, -
2:22 - 2:25along the landscape,
so that when their current tool ran out, -
2:25 - 2:29or got down to kind of a nub,
they could make themselves a new one. -
2:29 - 2:32So, there are some
researchers in my field, -
2:32 - 2:34especially a fellow
by the name of Thomas Wynn, -
2:34 - 2:38has teamed up with a neuropsychologist,
by the name of Frederick Coolidge, -
2:38 - 2:41and the two of them have talked
about something called working memory. -
2:41 - 2:46And so, it's not one spot in the brain
-
2:46 - 2:49so much as sort of several functions
that kind of work together, -
2:49 - 2:53that allow things like mental templates
and allow things like pre-planning. -
2:53 - 2:56Now, they've made the argument
that even on a very basic level -
2:56 - 2:59chimps probably do have
some working memory as well. -
2:59 - 3:00Of course, they can also use tools,
-
3:00 - 3:02they're just not very good at -
-
3:02 - 3:05Basically, they'll take their stick,
-
3:05 - 3:08they'll rip off the leaves,
they'll use it to dip some termites out, -
3:08 - 3:09but then they tend to dump it.
-
3:09 - 3:12That's pretty much it,
they're done with that tool. -
3:12 - 3:15So, there's not a lot of examples
of chimps reusing tools -
3:15 - 3:18or sort of behaving
in exactly the same way -
3:18 - 3:21as what we see with Homo habilis.
-
3:21 - 3:24But with that as sort of the base
and that idea of working memory, -
3:24 - 3:26they've then sort of extrapolated that
-
3:26 - 3:30and said, let's talk about something
that they call enhanced working memory. -
3:30 - 3:33And so enhanced working memory -
-
3:33 - 3:35basically there's
several components to it. -
3:35 - 3:38This is sort of taking that,
and then basically putting it on steroids. -
3:38 - 3:42So, not just that basic mental template
and pre-planning, -
3:42 - 3:44but now let's add to that
the ability to envision -
3:44 - 3:46and work with abstract concepts.
-
3:46 - 3:48Let's talk about mental time travel.
-
3:48 - 3:50Now, what I mean when I say
mental time travel, -
3:50 - 3:53is the ability to think about
past and future. -
3:53 - 3:55These are actually very unusual things.
-
3:55 - 3:57We take them for granted,
-
3:57 - 4:00but they're not something that necessarily
other species can conceive of. -
4:00 - 4:04I mean obviously your dog seems
to remember about going to the vet, -
4:04 - 4:06which is sort of an interesting thing,
-
4:06 - 4:10but you know he doesn't have
a strong sense of clear episodic memories -
4:10 - 4:11of having been to the vet
-
4:11 - 4:14so much as this is a bad thing
when I go into this building, -
4:14 - 4:18it smells a certain way - and, you know,
this is danger basically flashing. -
4:18 - 4:22So, the clear ability to also say,
with mental time travel, -
4:22 - 4:24"When I tried making a tool
using this material before, -
4:24 - 4:26this didn't work very well,
-
4:26 - 4:28so, I'm going to do it
differently this time." -
4:28 - 4:31Or, "I saw this person in the next
hunter-gatherer group over do something. -
4:31 - 4:34That worked really nicely,
I want to do that." -
4:34 - 4:37All those kinds of things,
as well as being able to think forwards: -
4:37 - 4:39so, pre-planning,
but even at a greater degree. -
4:39 - 4:43Imagination, because again the ability
to sort of conceive of something, -
4:43 - 4:46like a mental template
when you're making a tool, -
4:46 - 4:48relies on us being able
to visualize something -
4:48 - 4:50that doesn't actually exist
at that moment in time - -
4:50 - 4:53it's more, again,
that we're looking forward. -
4:53 - 4:56And then, of course, the capacity
to understand and manipulate symbols. -
4:56 - 4:59And, so, this is where we get to things
like language and to art. -
4:59 - 5:03So, you probably saw
I said the "God spot," -
5:03 - 5:05what we're talking about there is that,
-
5:05 - 5:08certainly starting in probably about,
I think, in the 1990's, -
5:08 - 5:10once we, especially neuropsychologists,
-
5:10 - 5:13once they had their fancy MRI's
and other brain scans, -
5:13 - 5:15they really started looking to see
-
5:15 - 5:19if there was one spot in the brain
that could be associated with God. -
5:19 - 5:22And they even actually did some study
-
5:22 - 5:24where they actually had
the people in the MRI, -
5:24 - 5:27and they were like, okay,
we want you to think about -
5:27 - 5:30your vision of God or faith
or spiritually while you're in here, -
5:30 - 5:32while we see if we can map
the areas of the brain -
5:32 - 5:34that light up while we're doing that.
-
5:34 - 5:37And they kept getting one spot
that was lighting up, -
5:37 - 5:40and so it was this huge, like, we did it,
aha, we found the God spot. -
5:40 - 5:44Turns out it's the spot that lights up
when people are concentrating. -
5:44 - 5:46(Laughter)
-
5:46 - 5:49So, we definitely know
where they concentrate, -
5:49 - 5:52but, of course, everybody concentrated
on thinking about God, -
5:52 - 5:53so, that was the problem.
-
5:53 - 5:57But I think really what neuropsychologists
and what people working on evolution -
5:57 - 6:00are working towards, is the idea
there's probably not one spot. -
6:00 - 6:02Similar to enhanced working memory,
-
6:02 - 6:04there's actually
several parts of the brain -
6:04 - 6:06that are all kind of working together
-
6:06 - 6:10to create that space
and those types of abilities. -
6:11 - 6:13So, is it all in the lobes?
-
6:13 - 6:14Behind me on the slide what you'll see
-
6:14 - 6:18is that on the left-hand side
we have a Homo erectus, -
6:18 - 6:20so that's 1.65 million years ago.
-
6:20 - 6:23And then on the right-hand side
we have a Homo sapiens skull -
6:23 - 6:25from about 20,000 years ago in Germany.
-
6:25 - 6:2920,000 years ago in Germany,
their skulls were identical to ours - -
6:29 - 6:31I just thought it might be cooler
-
6:31 - 6:34to use a sort of fossil skull
for Homo sapiens. -
6:34 - 6:36Now, what I want you to look at though,
-
6:36 - 6:39is that when you see the profile,
-
6:39 - 6:42erectus has that nice
big brow ridge we think of, -
6:42 - 6:44but you'll notice behind that,
-
6:44 - 6:48it actually slopes at quite
a sharp angle backwards. -
6:48 - 6:51Now look at that beautiful,
big, old forehead -
6:51 - 6:54on the Homo sapiens skull.
-
6:54 - 6:56Those are the frontal lobes.
-
6:58 - 7:02This is pretty much where all
of our higher reasoning comes from, -
7:02 - 7:05from those spots right there.
-
7:05 - 7:07You know, thinking about it,
what's so interesting -
7:07 - 7:09is that while we sit here, in this room,
-
7:09 - 7:11having this conversation,
-
7:11 - 7:14you're using those frontal parts
of your lobes, aren't you? -
7:14 - 7:17But the question that's come up is:
-
7:17 - 7:21It can physically be there,
but is it maybe more about wiring? -
7:21 - 7:24Not just about size,
but then also about how is it wired, -
7:24 - 7:27how are the neural pathways moving.
-
7:27 - 7:29So, this is where
the scholars I mentioned, -
7:29 - 7:31Wynn and Coolidge working together,
-
7:31 - 7:36have made the argument that they believe
that the truly modern thought, -
7:36 - 7:40that ability [which includes]
imagination, mental time travel, -
7:40 - 7:42they believe it started
with modern humans. -
7:42 - 7:45So, what do I mean
when I say modern humans? -
7:45 - 7:46About 200,000 years ago,
-
7:46 - 7:49we've been able to find
the earliest skeletons, -
7:49 - 7:52that we currently have of what
we would call fully modern humans. -
7:52 - 7:55That means that their skeletons
were identical to ours, -
7:55 - 7:58and their brain size was exactly the same.
-
7:58 - 8:00Now, that doesn't mean though,
-
8:00 - 8:03that they were actually using
all of the abilities we had, -
8:03 - 8:05and this is something
that is a particular area of mine -
8:05 - 8:08that I find really fascinating,
as well, trying to figure out: -
8:08 - 8:10When did they become us?
-
8:10 - 8:13Because we're more
than just the brain size and the body, -
8:13 - 8:15it's also about how we use that brain.
-
8:15 - 8:18And what's so fascinating
about the early humans in Africa, -
8:18 - 8:23is that, for probably about the first
80,000 years or so, -
8:23 - 8:25they're not really doing much different
-
8:25 - 8:27than the ancestor species
that came before them. -
8:27 - 8:29They're making really nice tools,
-
8:29 - 8:32surviving quite well,
making good use of their landscape, -
8:32 - 8:34all of those types of things are in place.
-
8:34 - 8:39But what we're not seeing is those kinds
of behaviours that make us go: They're us. -
8:39 - 8:42And then, suddenly,
around 120,000 years ago, -
8:42 - 8:46what starts happening
is we suddenly start finding -
8:46 - 8:48what we call symbolic behaviour.
-
8:48 - 8:50And what we mean when we say that
-
8:50 - 8:53are things that we would consider
to be non-utilitarian. -
8:53 - 9:00So, not something that's useful
at a very 1:1 ratio level of survival, -
9:00 - 9:02something to keep you warm at night,
-
9:02 - 9:04something to eat,
something to shelter you. -
9:04 - 9:06We start finding burials.
-
9:07 - 9:11120,000 years ago is the oldest burials
we know of in the world, -
9:11 - 9:14and not just burials but burials
with grave goods in them. -
9:14 - 9:19So, in this case, what we're talking
about at the 120,000 mark - -
9:19 - 9:22they were finding a few marine shells
that have perforations, -
9:22 - 9:26and some of the perforations look
like they probably occurred naturally, -
9:26 - 9:28some may have been made by tools,
-
9:28 - 9:33but the kicker is that those little holes
in the shells have wear marks on them, -
9:33 - 9:36which means that they were
being worn in some fashion. -
9:36 - 9:39Now, there's nothing about doing that
that is remotely useful -
9:39 - 9:42for again heat, shelter, food.
-
9:42 - 9:45So, what's going on?
What's happened? What's changed? -
9:45 - 9:48And this is kind of
the story going forward, -
9:48 - 9:51and this is again where Wynn and Coolidge
have made this argument, -
9:51 - 9:53and other scholars have as well,
-
9:53 - 9:56that modern humans is where
that big change takes place. -
9:56 - 10:00They've made the argument potentially even
that the change started here, -
10:00 - 10:03but that some sort of genetic mutation
or something else -
10:03 - 10:06happened around 40-50,000 years ago,
-
10:06 - 10:09and that that was
when truly modern behaviour, -
10:09 - 10:13the full suite of behaviours
that we associate with being modern, -
10:13 - 10:17music and mathematics and the ability
to envision things that aren't there, -
10:17 - 10:20and all of these things
which are very much about us, -
10:20 - 10:24and, of course, full language,
communication, all that kind of thing. -
10:24 - 10:27They see it as happening
around 40-50,00 years ago, -
10:27 - 10:29which coincides with
when modern humans left Africa. -
10:29 - 10:32Maybe it might have been
as early as 60,000, -
10:32 - 10:34so somewhere in that 40-60,000 range,
-
10:34 - 10:36is when modern humans left Africa
-
10:36 - 10:39and basically went out
and populated the Old World. -
10:39 - 10:43Now, I'm personally going to talk to you
tonight about the Ice Age in Europe, -
10:43 - 10:46and it's not that there weren't
interesting things being done -
10:46 - 10:49by modern humans who went
to other parts of the Old World. -
10:49 - 10:51In Asia and Australia,
there's lots of fascinating stuff, -
10:51 - 10:54but I study the Ice Age,
so it's what I know best. -
10:54 - 10:57So, that's where we're going to stick
with, looking at the Ice Age, today. -
10:57 - 11:00When it comes to Europe,
let's set the scene a little bit. -
11:00 - 11:02Obviously, we've got an Ice Age going on,
-
11:02 - 11:06and an Ice Age is not static by any means.
-
11:06 - 11:08We certainly have movement
of the glacier sheets, -
11:08 - 11:11but overall definitely colder,
an icy environment, -
11:11 - 11:14but very rich in animals as well.
-
11:14 - 11:15Huge herds of bison and mammoth
-
11:15 - 11:17and all these other things
on the landscape. -
11:17 - 11:20So, lots of things to eat,
which was kind of a pull factor -
11:20 - 11:22that probably kept modern humans there.
-
11:22 - 11:26They show up in Europe somewhere around
40,000, even 45,000, in some spots, -
11:26 - 11:28and they spread out around there,
-
11:28 - 11:33and this again coincides with what
we call the creative explosion, sometimes. -
11:33 - 11:36It's not that they weren't doing
interesting things before, -
11:36 - 11:39but this is when it starts
getting really interesting. -
11:39 - 11:42This is when we start finding
a lot of symbolic materials, -
11:42 - 11:46like portable art pieces and lots
of jewellery and other interesting things, -
11:46 - 11:48in the archaeological record
alongside the stone tools. -
11:49 - 11:51So, what would we look for?
-
11:51 - 11:54Let's go back to this idea
of religion and spirituality, -
11:54 - 11:56and how you get that
in the archaeological record. -
11:56 - 11:58Because, if you think about that far back,
-
11:58 - 12:01basically, we're working with stone tools.
-
12:01 - 12:03So, there's not really much to go at,
-
12:03 - 12:06and so how do we start trying
to move beyond that, -
12:06 - 12:09and actually look for
these indirect clues? -
12:09 - 12:12Well, there's three main things
that people in my field tend to use -
12:12 - 12:13looking at that.
-
12:13 - 12:16The first is burials
with elaborate grave goods. -
12:16 - 12:19So, the necklace itself
at the 120,000 mark, -
12:19 - 12:21very interesting, very cool,
-
12:21 - 12:23but we can take that a bit farther,
-
12:23 - 12:28and say: What about if they're putting
lots of elaborate items into that burial? -
12:28 - 12:30Impossible entities being depicted.
-
12:30 - 12:32So, when I use the term
impossible entities, -
12:32 - 12:36we're referring to things
that do not appear anywhere in nature. -
12:36 - 12:40So, we're not referring
to anything in the real world. -
12:40 - 12:42Something that's, say,
half-animal, half-human, -
12:42 - 12:44would be an impossible entity.
-
12:44 - 12:47And then, of course, trying to identify
magic and spiritual themes -
12:47 - 12:49in the art itself.
-
12:49 - 12:51And this is on portable pieces
and, of course, -
12:51 - 12:53my particular area of study,
the cave walls. -
12:54 - 12:56So, to quickly go over a couple of these
-
12:56 - 12:59and I'll give you some ideas
of what we're seeing. -
12:59 - 13:02For an elaborate burial,
this one is a very famous burial -
13:02 - 13:04and it's an absolutely fascinating one.
-
13:04 - 13:06This is actually one
of three burials from this site. -
13:06 - 13:08This particular one is the adult male,
-
13:08 - 13:12and it's about 28,000 years old,
it's from Russia, -
13:12 - 13:16and you notice there's little white things
all over his skeleton there. -
13:16 - 13:18Those are ivory beads.
-
13:19 - 13:23There are approximately
3,500 ivory beads in this burial. -
13:23 - 13:25An archaeologist in our field,
his name's Randy White, -
13:25 - 13:27actually went to the effort
of trying to do -
13:28 - 13:29what we call experimental archaeology.
-
13:29 - 13:32And he actually took
the mammoth ivory and practiced -
13:32 - 13:35until he could get quite good
at making the beads, -
13:35 - 13:38and even when he was good at it,
it took an hour per bead. -
13:38 - 13:39Do the math on that.
-
13:39 - 13:42Then on top of that,
we actually have the fact -
13:42 - 13:44that the two other burials
at that particular site -
13:44 - 13:46are actually of two children.
-
13:47 - 13:48A little boy and a little girl,
-
13:48 - 13:50and they're buried in a double burial.
-
13:50 - 13:52The little boy has 4,500 beads,
-
13:52 - 13:54so 1,000 more than the adult male,
-
13:54 - 13:56and the little girl has over 5,000.
-
13:56 - 13:59So, what we're seeing here then
is potentially the fact -
13:59 - 14:04that they're seeing death as being a state
that's different than life, -
14:04 - 14:06and yet worth recognizing
and worth paying attention to, -
14:06 - 14:09and worth acknowledging, and, frankly,
-
14:09 - 14:12worth the sheer amount of effort
of making all those beads -
14:12 - 14:14only to bury them in the ground
and cover them up. -
14:14 - 14:17So, something is definitely
going on in that sense. -
14:19 - 14:21Then, of course, we come
to impossible entities. -
14:21 - 14:24And this one is a wonderful,
classic example. -
14:24 - 14:27This is an ivory carved figurine,
it's probably about this tall. -
14:27 - 14:29Head of a lion, body of a human.
-
14:29 - 14:32Again coming back to that,
that doesn't exist anywhere in nature. -
14:32 - 14:35So, what's going on?
Why are they depicting this? -
14:35 - 14:36This is not a self-representation.
-
14:36 - 14:39And there's people in my field
who have made the proposal -
14:39 - 14:42that, maybe, this could be
some sort of mythology, -
14:42 - 14:45something to do with origin stories
and things like that. -
14:45 - 14:47So, there's these interesting examples
-
14:47 - 14:49that exist throughout
the archaeological record. -
14:49 - 14:52That particular one
is about 32,000 years old. -
14:54 - 14:55What about hunting magic?
-
14:55 - 14:57When I say hunting magic, I mean this,
-
14:57 - 14:59this is from the cave
called Niaux, in France, -
14:59 - 15:03and you've got a bison
that's painted on a cave wall, -
15:03 - 15:06and if you notice it looks like
there's almost some sort of spear -
15:06 - 15:07sticking out of its side.
-
15:07 - 15:10So, in this case what people have proposed
-
15:10 - 15:14is that what we could be seeing is them
almost trying to kill the animal -
15:14 - 15:16ritually in the cave first,
-
15:16 - 15:19in order to ensure success
when they go out on the real hunt. -
15:19 - 15:23And we do have some examples
where there's not just the spears, -
15:23 - 15:26but there's also punctuation marks,
-
15:26 - 15:30which almost looks like maybe somebody
was banging a real spear or something -
15:30 - 15:32at the image on the wall.
-
15:32 - 15:35So, again, that suggests
some sort of harnessing -
15:35 - 15:38of some unseen world -
there's something going on. -
15:38 - 15:42And then this is another great example
here of an impossible entity -
15:42 - 15:45which has also been potentially
identified as being a shaman. -
15:45 - 15:48Now, the reason why they say that
is the idea that: -
15:48 - 15:50What if they were wearing a mask?
-
15:50 - 15:52What if this, rather than being
an impossible entity, -
15:52 - 15:56is an actual depiction of a human
partially dressed up like an animal? -
15:56 - 15:58You see the legs have
a much more human look, -
15:58 - 16:02they're not very bison-like,
yet the head has that very bison look, -
16:02 - 16:03and the arms are also very human.
-
16:03 - 16:08So, this is where they started to talk
about the idea of shamanistic practices, -
16:08 - 16:10because shamans, of course -
-
16:10 - 16:13the term itself comes from Russia,
-
16:13 - 16:16but it's applied a lot
to basically spiritual practices -
16:16 - 16:19where there are
specific members of your tribe -
16:19 - 16:22who intercede on your behalf
with an unseen world. -
16:22 - 16:25Whether it's to influence weather,
to influence the hunt, -
16:25 - 16:26or to do with health,
-
16:26 - 16:30and with people being sick
and trying to make them better again, -
16:30 - 16:31there's these people that do that.
-
16:31 - 16:35And what's so interesting about
some modern examples, for instance, -
16:35 - 16:39is that there is a fellow
by the name of David Lewis-Williams, -
16:39 - 16:43who is a researcher in rock art
who works in South Africa, -
16:43 - 16:47and he had the wonderful opportunity
to actually speak with the San people, -
16:47 - 16:50who are a hunter-gatherer group
living in northern Southern Africa. -
16:50 - 16:52They live out in the desert,
-
16:52 - 16:55and still practice
the hunter-gatherer lifestyle. -
16:55 - 16:57And guess what? They still do rock art.
-
16:57 - 17:00So, here had the opportunity to ask them,
"So, why do you guys do the art?" -
17:00 - 17:02Now, it doesn't explain all the art,
-
17:02 - 17:06but certainly shamanistic practices
played a large role in it. -
17:06 - 17:07Things like handprints.
-
17:07 - 17:09They talked about the idea that caves
-
17:09 - 17:14were almost like a transitional place
between worlds. -
17:14 - 17:15That once you go into a cave -
-
17:15 - 17:17we go in with headlamps and lots of light,
-
17:17 - 17:19and we know what a cave is, geologically.
-
17:19 - 17:21But imagine if you didn't know.
-
17:21 - 17:24It almost has a feel of maybe being
a portal to another reality. -
17:24 - 17:27And they've talked about
the idea of those cave walls -
17:27 - 17:30as almost being maybe membranes
that they could touch, -
17:30 - 17:33and through those membranes
touch the unseen. -
17:33 - 17:35So, now, we get specifically
-
17:35 - 17:37to a research project
that I've been working on, -
17:37 - 17:40where I said, okay,
well, let's try with this, -
17:40 - 17:43because, of course, modern people
in Africa doing this - -
17:43 - 17:47minimum of 10,000 years' difference
between what's happening in Europe, -
17:47 - 17:49could we get at that? Is it possible?
-
17:49 - 17:54Are we seeing on the walls, potentially,
some of the trance-like imagery -
17:54 - 17:56which they have said
that that's why they're doing it. -
17:56 - 18:01Because you see, the actual human mind -
-
18:01 - 18:04Obviously, trance is when we go
into an altered state of consciousness. -
18:04 - 18:08There's many things that will be
culturally specific to where you live, -
18:08 - 18:10like the animals you see in the imagery,
-
18:10 - 18:13but geometric imagery
actually happens to be almost universal. -
18:13 - 18:15And the reason for that
-
18:15 - 18:19is our eyes are only hard-wired
to be able to produce certain shapes -
18:19 - 18:21when we're in a state of trance.
-
18:21 - 18:24And so this is where,
what I've looked at is, -
18:24 - 18:26can we find those in the caves in Europe.
-
18:26 - 18:28And the study is still ongoing,
-
18:28 - 18:30but I thought I'd share a little
with you today, -
18:30 - 18:33which was that with dots,
with lines, with grids, -
18:33 - 18:35yes, absolutely, we're finding those.
-
18:35 - 18:38But, some of the other ones, not so much.
-
18:38 - 18:42Zigzags, there's only
about 15 examples over 300 sites -
18:42 - 18:44that have zigzags in them.
-
18:44 - 18:48So, they're not totally behaving the way
that the people in, say, South Africa are. -
18:48 - 18:51When it comes to spirals,
there's only two. -
18:51 - 18:54So, in that sense spirals
are even more uncommon, -
18:54 - 18:57and not something that we're seeing
throughout the archaeological record. -
18:57 - 18:59So, what does that mean?
-
18:59 - 19:01Basically, what it suggests to me -
-
19:01 - 19:03I can't give you a definitive answer,
-
19:03 - 19:08and say, "Yes, absolutely, there were
spiritual people living back then." -
19:08 - 19:10But, the signs are
definitely there to suggest -
19:10 - 19:12this was something that was developing,
-
19:12 - 19:14something that existed.
-
19:14 - 19:16And I'll leave you
with the thought that they're us. -
19:16 - 19:18In every sense of the word,
-
19:18 - 19:21those people who lived between 10,000
and 40,000 years ago were modern humans. -
19:21 - 19:24So, if we're capable of it,
why wouldn't they have been? -
19:24 - 19:25Thank you.
-
19:25 - 19:30(Applause)
- Title:
- The roots of religion | Genvieve Von Petzinger | TEDxVictoria
- Description:
-
Genevieve von Petzinger talks about the development of the conceptual ability of the human mind – the ability to make tools and to develop religion being thought to be somewhat concomitant.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDxTalks
- Duration:
- 19:33
Robert Tucker commented on English subtitles for The roots of religion | Genvieve Von Petzinger | TEDxVictoria | ||
Robert Tucker edited English subtitles for The roots of religion | Genvieve Von Petzinger | TEDxVictoria | ||
Emi Kamiya commented on English subtitles for The roots of religion | Genvieve Von Petzinger | TEDxVictoria | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for The roots of religion | Genvieve Von Petzinger | TEDxVictoria | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for The roots of religion | Genvieve Von Petzinger | TEDxVictoria | ||
Krystian Aparta approved English subtitles for The roots of religion | Genvieve Von Petzinger | TEDxVictoria | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for The roots of religion | Genvieve Von Petzinger | TEDxVictoria | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for The roots of religion | Genvieve Von Petzinger | TEDxVictoria |
Robert Tucker
Please note: This speaker is Canadian. Canadian grammar and spelling differs slightly from both US English and British English.
Emi Kamiya
Corrections/ Suggestions
1:51
But, if you actually think about
what kind of leap making tools is,
what kind of leap -> what a cognitive leap
2:19
They were taking
a piece of flint with them,
->
They were potentially taking
5:26
your vision of God or faith
or spiritually while you're in here,
spiritually -> spirituality
Thanks!
Robert Tucker
Corrections made.