Book Description
This study explores the origins of religious consciousness by means of a systematic analysis of the ritualized burial of the dead and cave art as evidenced in Paleolithic remains. It is suggested here that religion is a natural manifestation of emerging human consciousness demonstrated by empirical archeological artifacts as an integral component to cultural evolution. Religion and culture converge in the behavioral matrix of politics thereby demonstrating what it means to be human. The book argues that religion, culture, and politics are interlocking symbol systems embodied in human experience and their prehistoric origins can be traced from our earliest Paleolithic records of social behavior beginning with Neanderthal burial rituals and Cro-Magnon cave art. This study is an extension of the author's continuing work on the natural history of moral behavior and its relevance to secular humanism as a spiritual journey.
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