Shamans, Sorcerers, and Saints: A Prehistory of Religion

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PREHISTORY OF RELIGION •

Smithsonian Books '>

Washington

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© 2003 by the Smithsonian Institution All rights reserved Copy editor: Jean Eckenfels Production editors: E. Anne Bolen and Joanne Reams Designer: Brian Barth

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hayden, Brian Shamans, sorcerers, and saints: a prehistory of religion I Brian Hayden. p.

cm.

Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 1-58834-168-2 (alk. paper) 1. Religion BL48.H368 200'.9'01

History. I. Title. 2003 2003045695

dc21

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data are available

Manufactured in the United States of America 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03

5 4 3 2 I

@) The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences

Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials ANSI Z39.48-1984.

For permission to reproduce illustrations appearing in this book, please correspond directly with the owners of the works as listed in the individual captions. Smithsonian Books does not retain reproduction rights for these illustrations individually or maintain a file of addresses for photo sources.

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Contents ,

Preface

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IX

1

Chapter 1

Delving into the Past

Chapter 2

The Making of Humanity and the Origin of Religion

20

Chapter 3

Shamanism: An Ancient System

46

Chapter 4

The Primal Paleolithic

88

Chapter 5

Complexity in the Hunter-Gatherer World

122

Chapter 6

A Cauldron of Change in the Fertile Crescent

167

Chapter 7

Megaliths and Mages

219

Chapter

8 Pastoral Nomads Turn the World on Edge

271

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Chapter 9

Celts and Saxons Embellish Western Rites

304

Chapter 10

Once Upon a Time: The Mystery of Stories

334

Chapter 11

Religious Needs of Early States and Empires

347

Chapter 12

The New Synthesis: Judeo-Christianity

380

Chapter 13

Religious Foment in the Industrial World

399

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References

415

Glossary

457

Index

461 •

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have long thought that a comprehensive book by an archaeologist on the prehistory of religion was overdue. In the course that I taught on this topic, no one text was broad enough or theoretically suited. As my own ideas on the topic developed and evolved over the last 15 years, more and more pieces began to fit together into a relatively coherent picture that I finally considered to be worth publishing. The marriage of ecology and religion is a little-explored domain, but one that I think has a great many potential insights to offer about ourselves and our religious feelings. If some of the arguments presented do not seem entirely iron-clad, I would remind the reader that archaeology is still a fairly young discipline and that our data base is often slim. Given these circumstances, we must always approach interpretations by judiciously weighing relative probabilities. This is, in fact, true of all sciences, even those that seem to deal in "hard facts." Archaeology is simply less developed than the older sciences in this respect. I have tried to adhere to the classic tenets of the Qriginal Greek Academy of Athens, where Plato taught. These academicians maintained a healthy skepticism toward all explanations. However, they thought that since decisions had to be made, the best way to proceed was to lay out all the competing theories together with all of the known relevant data. Each theory was then harshly criticized, and the one that stood up the best was deemed the most useful basis for making decisions. In this classic sense, this is an "academic" work. However, I have tried to present the observations and arguments about the past in a way that is easy to read and grasp for a wide range of students and interested nonstudents. •

In writing this book, I have tried to remain cognizant of the fascination that prehistoric religion holds for many people from diverse backgrounds, both academic and nonacademic. In order to make this book useful to as many people as possible, I have limited the use of technical terms and the discussions of issues only of interest to special­ ists. Thus, I have not gone into the details of the different Upper Paleolithic cultures, or indeed, even mentioned them by name or discussed all their variability. Nor have I •

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IX

delved into the traditional subdivisions of the earlier Paleolithic or the many local Neo­ lithic cultures, or the detailed arguments about domestication. These issues are discussed in standard textbooks on archaeology. On the other hand, I have tried to provide key references to many of the concepts that may not be readily obtainable by students or other academics, so that these and other areas can be explored more fully if readers wish to pursue certain topics. Moreover, in a book of this size, it is impossible to cover all reli­ gions of the world throughout all time periods. Thus, I have selected examples of what I perceive to be the most representative or the most important developments in religious life over the past two million years. As a prehistorian, I have understandably emphasized the prehistoric periods of religious development rather than the major religions of the historic period. Thus, some major religions such as Islam, Buddhism, and Medieval Christianity are not really dealt with at all in this book. There are many other compre­ hensive volumes dealing with these aspects of religious life whereas there are few that deal with prehistoric religions, and most of these are only for very selected periods. I hope that the resulting balance is both readable and enjoyable while at the same time providing critical documentation for key aspects of past ritual life. Perhaps it would be best to view the chapters in this book as useful introductions or starting points for exam­ ining specific issues and topics rather than any definitive summary of established inter­ pretations about prehistoric religions. The interpretations and suggestions presented in this volume are my personal assessments of what appear to be the most sensible interpre­ tations of the information now at hand, leavened with suitable cultural ecological as­ sumptions. Over the last 15 years, it has been fascinating to see this project come to­

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gether, and it has been one of the most interesting projects of my career. I have been unusually lucky in being able to visit some of the most important sites by dint of being at the right place at the right time. My visits to the caves of Enlene, Lascaux, Bemifal, Arey, and Bruniquel are some of the most fascinating archaeological and personal experi­ ences that I have ever had, and I am very grateful to those who made these visits pos­ sible. There are many individuals to whom lowe great debts for sharing their time, knowledge, hospitality, and insights with me. Foremost is Huguette Hayden, who en­ couraged me to undertake this project, provided key insights into ecstatic states from a psychiatric viewpoint, and introduced me to mainstream researchers in transcultural psychiatry. Also of great help in the research for this volume have been Jean Clottes, David Lewis-Williams, Polly W iessner, Wolfgang Jilek and Louise Jilek-Aall, Sophie de Beaune, Fran�ois Rouzeau, Tran Quoc Vuong, Ralana Maneeprasert, Larry Keeley, Stanislaus Sandarupa, Paul Dutton, Trevor Watkins, Richard Sobel, Denise Schmandt­ Besserat, Marek Zvelebil, Mark Blackham, Dan Monah, and Fritz Muntean. I am espe­ cially grateful to the Centre for Distance Education at Simon Fraser University for en­ abling me to develop this text and permitting me to use it, including many illustrations, in this published version. I am extremely appreciative of the cooperation of its directors, Colin Yerbury and Joan Collinge as well as the work done on this manuscript by mem­ bers of the Centre, including Y vonne Tabin (associate director), John W hatley (program director), Jane Cowan (senior editor), Wendy Plain (co-ordinator of Course Produc­ tion), Barb Lange (for page layout), and Production team members: Sigie Diebold, Greg Holoboff (Art), Barb Lange, Melanie Monk, Doris Oh, Lesley Rougeau. Many thanks go to Scott Mahler of Smithsonian Books for undertaking this project, Emily Sollie and ,

PREFACE

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Joanne Reams for troubleshooting all the queries and conundrums involved in getting this book to print, and Jean Eckenfels for her copy-editing skills. Jennifer Proven

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