This is #1, Part 1 in my "Testing the Hypothesis" series where I interact with "Original Monotheism" as defined by Wilhelm Schmidt.  You can read the hypothesis here.  Click to see: #1, Part 2, #2.

When my in-laws and my parents ask me what I want for Christmas each year, I invariably just send them to my Amazon Wishlist. This is because (a) it’s hard for me to justify buying a new book when I’ve already got so many I’m still working through and (b) there’s an element of surprise of which ones (if any) they’ll get!

This year, I got (*deep breath*)…. The Oxford Handbook of The Archaeology and Anthropology of Hunter-Gatherers!

This massive collection is over 1300 pages of annotated scholarly papers, reviews, and case studies organized into different topics relating to what we’ve discovered thus far about our ancient ancestors. I’ve been so excited to dig into this one because it’ll provide me with various avenues to test the veracity of my hypothesis concerning the salvation of pre-Adamite humanity.

What are we testing?

The first part of the hypothesis I want to investigate is the idea that the most ancient hunter-gatherer cultures exhibited monotheistic or monolatrous tendencies focusing on a “supreme god” that shares characteristics with Yahweh, the Judeo-Christian Creator God.

However, to do this, we’ll need to begin with an overview of the subject of “Hunter-Gatherer religion.” It is important to have a starting place from which to then discuss what makes a culture ancient. It also will provide lynchpins that we can hinge discussions of how those ancient cultures’ religious views changed or were preserved over time.

The second part of the hypothesis is that this most ancient religion will share elements with and correlate to the Dominion Mandate of Genesis 1. This has testable features and leads to predictions that we can make that can then be compared to anthropological, ethnographic, archaeological, and theological data regarding the religions of the most ancient hunter-gatherer cultures.

“Hunter-Gatherer Religion and Ritual” by David S. Whitely

Dr. David Whitley is an archaeologist who specializes in western North America and has published several highly regarded publications, specifically in ancient art (cave paintings, rock art, and shamanic expressions). You can see his Academia page here, and his ResearchGate profile here. His article, “Hunter-Gatherer Religion and Ritual” is Chapter 59 of The Oxford Handbook of The Archaeology and Anthropology of Hunter-Gatherers (pp. 1221-1242). You can read it here.

Partial Article Summary

Introduction

  • Dr. Whitley gives a brief history of the study of religion and the growth of the science behind its study (ethnography, anthropology, sociology, folklore, psychiatry, archaeology, etc.
  • Dr. Whitley explains why he focuses on the Northern California hunter-gatherer societies
    • They have a wide diversity of data within a small area and
    • The ethnographic data in the area is so “rich,” which serves as a helpful microcosm to understand hunter-gatherers globally.

About Hunter-Gatherers Globally

  • Definitions (from p. 1222 of his articles):
    • Religion – “a culturally shared set of beliefs and practices which involve supernatural agents – spirits or gods of some kind.”
    • Cosmology – “a theory of the origin, structure, and nature of the universe (including the place of humans in it)”
    • Theology – “a formally defined religious philosophy and theory”
    • Ritual – “customarily or formally repeated acts or sequences of actions”
    • Myth – “a corpus of accounts of supernatural agents and events occurring during a primordial, pre-human time.”
    • Folk tales – stories that “include ‘real’ even if historical or apocryphal humans” that might “involve supernatural agents and events.”
  • Whitley uses Western culture’s understanding of Judeo-Christian religion (which he argues is much more of an institutionalized social structure rather than what hunter-gatherers might recognize as “religion”) as his starting point to begin introducing hunter-gatherer beliefs to his Western readers. He underscores five key differences between classical Western and hunter-gatherer understandings of “religion.”
    1. Hunter-gatherer religions tend to be animistic, believing all or most aspects of the natural world are imbued with spiritual properties.
    2. Sacred space is rarely demarcated from the secular due to the pervasive spiritual nature of the world. Because of this, rituals are more time-based rather than location-based.
      • For example, a family would have no qualms burying a loved one in their kitchen; religious rituals were done in everyday living areas.
    3. There is a wide variety amongst hunter-gatherers regarding the connection between ritual and myths. Some peoples re-enact important mythical occurrences; others have rituals completely separated from their mythologies and focus on other things. The culturally Western person might be thinking about the connection between Christianity’s Last Supper and Communion.
    4. “[H]unter-gatherer religions are syncretic rather than exclusionary…” Rarely will a hunter-gatherer society jettison its belief system and replace it with a new set; rather, they tend to incorporate new ideas into their existing framework.
    5. Religious knowledge is carefully controlled within the group. Many hunter-gatherer societies use coming-of-age ceremonies or skill demonstrations to determine when a person has earned the right to learn the details of their belief system.

The rest of the article touches on several other important topics that will be covered in more detail in future posts. These topics include:

  • Shamanism vs. World Renewal / Toteism / Priestly Systems
  • The role of Secret Societies and Initiation rites within hunter-gatherer societies.
  • The importance of rock art in understanding religious beliefs among ancient hunter-gatherers.
  • Speculations on the origins of religious beliefs.

**See Part 2 for analysis and response.