Animism, The Seed Of Religion Paperback
He rejects the term ‘shamanism’, arguing that shaman religious belief is basically animism but recognising that the function of the shaman is usually essential to a people’s understanding of animism. Finds at Pinnacle Point in southern Africa (Marean et al. 2007) demonstrate the use and processing of pigment amongst anatomically contemporary humans as early as 165,000 years ago (McDougall et al. 2005). Ochre nodules bearing engraved abstract patterns and perforated shell beads discovered at Blombos Cave in South Africa, dating to 75,000–100,000 years ago (d’Errico et al. 2005 Henshilwood et al. 2009), suggest symbolically mediated behavior. It is a thing...