831▶ religion and cosmology
introduction
When religion began is not known, but archaeologists, pa-
leontologists, and historians oft en speculate about it. Some
point to early graves containing goods such pots and jewelry
as signs of a belief in an aft erlife and therefore signs of reli-
gion. A signifi cant problem with this idea is that some ancient
peoples believed in gods and the supernatural but did not be-
lieve that human beings had any life aft er death. For them,
a human being had only one life, and once it was ended the
human being was gone forever.
Other researchers point to artworks as signs of religious
belief. All over the world ancient peoples painted on and
car ved into large rocks. Some sculpted images of animals and
people. For some people works of art were magical; when the
works were created, reality itself changed to conform to the
painting or carving. One of the problems the earliest rock
art and carvings present modern observers is that they can
indicate that religious belief existed but cannot show when
that belief began. Early religious objects may have been made
of perishable substances such as wood and leather, and early
people may not have chosen to express their religious beliefs
in art. For many religions the substance of religious belief and
practice was not in scripture, in art, or in altars but was in
everyday behavior, passed on by spoken word and examples
of behavior from one generation to the next.
Some anthropologists see religion as a part of culture
that developed through stages. For these researchers religious
ideas would have begun in Africa before modern humans left
Africa to colonize the world. Th eir religion would have been
a form of animism, a belief that almost everything had spiri-
tual signifi cance, including bodies of water, large geological
formations, and any living thing.
Religions have been an expression of a fundamental as-
pect of being human, and it has long been thought that religion
separates human beings from all other creatures. Religion is
an expression of a feeling or sensation in people that there is
something more to the world than can be readily observed
by their senses, something that underlies the cosmos. Th is
somet hing is conveyed to people spiritua l ly. It does not neces-
sarily mean that human beings have souls, though in almost
all religions people believe that they sense the supernatural
nature of the universe because they have souls that are related
to the supernatural. In some religions this has meant the loss
of individuality, which was submerged in a universal spirit; in
other cases, it has meant liberation of a person because his or
her individual spirit is able to be an active participant in the
great enterprises of the supernatural world.
In general, religions have required rituals on the part of
people. To get in touch with the supernatural may have re-
quired waiting in a particular spot known to be a way sta-
tion for traveling spirits or speaking in certain ways to invoke
spirits or gods. Clapping hands could be a way to attract the
attention of spirits. Kneeling could be a way to show a god
that one was sincere. In the context of many religions being
able to invoke the immediate presence of a god or gods was
important, because their presence signifi ed their interest in
the local community. Many sculptures of gods were intended
to function as places where gods could make themselves part
of the living world. In ancient Egypt priestesses would bring
food to statues of gods and then dance, sing, and tumble to