Religion, agriculture development and cultural evolution.

Science is a process of self-correction and that is also true for research on sociocultural evolution. Our understanding of cultural evolution is under constant review as new evidence becomes available. The famous archaeologist V. Gordon Childe invented the term Neolithic Evolution to explain the radical change that occurred when humanity left behind foraging for food and developed agriculture. From his perspective the agricultural impetus was the most important cultural trait complex in the development of humanity next to mastery of fire. Only after the revolution of agriculture and the accumulation of surplus food did the human species begin to increase in ever larger numbers as we spread over the globe. The Neolithic Revolution was in Childe’s view responsible for the advance of civilization that included the development of symbolic art and religion. In Childe's view agriculture began in the Fertile Crescent from Gaza to southern Turkey and into Iraq in the first organized state known as Sumer dating back to 4000 B.C.

However, recent research has uncovered the dawn of civilization in another remote region called Gobekli Tepe in southern Turkey. The temple complex found there dates back to 11,600 years ago, and was built by hunter gathers that were thought to live in small nomadic groups at this point in history (Mann, 2011). Childe’s ideas are called into question by the fact that these people built a massive temple complex 7000 years before the temples in Egypt. The pillars of the temple are very large up to 18 feet weighing 16 tons and would require a significant development of social structure and cooperation to move and maintain long before agricultural traits had evolved. Could it be, as the excavator Klaus Schmidt (see Mann, 2011) suggests that at this point in cultural evolution people had a need to see expressions of religious awe as an explanation for changes in the natural world? From his perspective religion occurred from these deep seated human emotions and began in response to the great unknown questions and in an effort to meet spiritual needs.

In particular religion evolved when humans moved away from seeing themselves as part of the natural world, and used symbols to imagine supernatural beings in control. These supernatural beings often resembled human beings, but could be conceptualized as belonging to another realm. Then in an effort to find expressions and respond to these feelings the temples at Gobekli Tepe were built. Agriculture followed this development in the Mann paradigm as necessary support system to maintain the level of civilization required to serve the religious sites and the associated need for permanent settlement. In reality socio-cultural evolution leading to agricultural development may have occurred in many places and in different ways. Once we step away from linear thinking it is possible to imagine different tracks, where in one place agriculture came first, in others religion was an impetus to settlement. However, it is clear that there is still much to be discovered by archeologists, and as they do discover new artifacts and gifts from the past we must reset our concepts to fit changing realities.

Date: 2015-01-11; view: 846