Dec 30, 2024  
2023-2024 Graduate Catalog 
    
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2023-2024 Graduate Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

RE 426 Dawn of Humanity and the Origins of Religion

The course examines evidence for the earliest forms of religious experience that mark the appearance of Homo sapiens in the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods. This evidence is explored from a multidisciplinary approach including cognitive and evolutionary psychology, biological anthropology, neuroscience, archeology, archeoastronomy and art history. A key consideration is the cognitive evolution of the brain and the power of brain to harness its own spiritual energy and power. Among the themes of the earliest manifestations of religious experience to be studied are archaic burial rites, Venus figurine, cave paintings, shamanism and burial mounds and henges. The link between these early forms of religions experience and later forms of religion will be outlined.