Locks and keys: The role of religion and mystery

Primordial Worship: The Rise Of Thought

The evidence is overwhelmingly in favour of evolution these days, those poor Creationists are desperate for something to cling on to but as yet the facts seem to be slipping away from them. Still the scientific community cannot agree on how anatomically modern humans evolved. The Multiregional Evolution Hypothesis had been preferred (Wolpoff) stating that for 2.5 million years a single continuous human species evolved across the globe from homo erectus to homo sapiens sapiens. So Asian erectus evolved to become Asian sapiens and African erectus became African sapiens and this is supposed as regional continuity.

Strongly contested since 1987 when Cann, Stoneking and Wilson discovered the existence of a common human ancestor in the matrilineal line of DNA dating back to 200,000 years BP when they tested 147 individuals from around the world. Interestingly, the first evidence we have of man’s cognitive development was when we began wearing clothes and garments made from animal skins at around 200,000 years ago. This would have been vital for our survival and has been proven as scientific fact by the testing of clothing lice found in archaeological remains (Stoneking). It was also shown that Neanderthals diverged from the mitochondrial strains long before, consistent with a lack of interbreeding between archaic and modern humans. This was how the Replacement and Out-Of-Africa Theories became the dominant models explaining the evolution of modern humans and our spread around the globe. There are more derivations of this theory some of which I hope to explore with you later.

Although archaic species of humans were living out of Africa it is believed that modern humans were not at this very early juncture. Remaining within Africa may have held some advantages and this is what I wish to explore. Importantly Palaeolithic Africa was a very different place to what it is now. The evidence shows that it was a much wetter continent with huge lakes and many rivers. It may have supported vast communities of hunter gatherers but thanks to geneticists like Stephen Oppehnheimer having comprehensively shown how we are all descended matrilinearly from one mother originally and she has been called Mitochondrial Eve. This is not to say there were no other women but evidence proves that it is from this sole individual the genes have survived and she was the common ancestor of all modern humans. This was crucial in the development and success of Out-Of-Africa-theory that remains the optimum model for explaining our emergence as the new dominant species on earth. With further study we may be able to be more accurate about gene flow and admixture between modern and archaic humans but for now, in my mind the fact that we are all related if we go far back enough is proof enough of our connectedness.

Also, a Y-Chromosome Adam has been identified but it is unlikely that he lived at the same time as Mitochondrial Eve although exploration of Y-Chromosome DNA may tell us more about migration routes and how the diversification occurred. It also shows that creation stories as the one found in Genesis should not be taken literally. If they are taken literally then we are missing out on asking vital questions about our heritage. However, we need not take the words literally for them to reveal truth. It is my belief that holy texts hold allegories much like myth and by comparing them with archaeological evidence we have a chance to learn more about our origins and as I think of it, her-story. That is to say the period in our evolution when it was not the masculine power of strength that assisted our evolution but the understanding of common interests. We worked together and we survived for over a hundred thousand years with little technology and many threats but we survived, we reproduced and importantly we learnt, not from books of course but from observing the natural world. To fully appreciate this concept it may be necessary at points to unlearn some of the negative associations we have with certain symbols as you will see shortly.

In addition to the Replacement Theory there are theories relating to population bottlenecks. What we know is that at various points there were catastrophes severely reducing population numbers. Beginning around 100,000 years BP there were disturbances in the environment, with increasing seismic activity in the form of earthquakes, floods and volcanic eruptions decimating the earth’s inhabitants. There was a super-volcano eruption at Toba that would have caused a decade long winter dramatically culling the global population and causing a bottle neck (Gibbons). The Out-Of-Africa Theory states that a relatively small population made it out of Africa to pass on genes. Of no more than five hundred it is thought. Did this large genocide committed by nature cause a diversification so those that did survive were the smartest or strongest? Natural selection a wiser man than me called it.

What really interests me is whether there was a common cause for the rise in consciousness and the natural catastrophes at the time of 100,000-70,000 years ago. Toba Bottleneck theory states that only 3,000 in every 10,000 hominids survived at this time, due potentially to a seven year volcanic winter around 69,000 to 77,000 years ago (Ambrose & Rampino). The main effect of this being diversification of the species into more separate ethnic groups. By reducing numbers of the less adaptable archaic humans this may have in fact offered a great advantage to modern humans. As resources disappeared so too did the competition, some of them at any rate.
What separates us from our archaic cousins was our ability to use our environment; this was what allowed us to flourish in hard times despite the huge losses the species of Homo sapiens sapiens suffered. From this area humans spread across Africa, probably keeping to the rivers and inhabited all the various mega lakes across the continent as well as travelling by sea to South Asia, some of which may now be beneath the waves but back then there may have been far more inhabitable land on the south coast of Asia. It is suspected that it was a small group of 500 or so hunter gatherers who spread the human genes outside of Africa. It is interesting that a group left in the direction of the mega eruption. Were they curious of the distant land, adventurers on a quest or exiled for sin?

During this time of gargantuan destruction man became capable of abstract thought and was active in worship and ritual. This is shown by Palaeolithic sites in Tsodilo Hills in Botswana. Now the Kalahari Desert this was the non-literal Garden of Eden for modern man. It has the highest frequency of rock paintings in the world. The object of worship was a giant python carving or natural formation of immense beauty. The ritual involved bringing spear points from miles around and burning exclusively the red ones. As to why we have no idea but Africa was most certainly a very different world in that distant time, yet so long ago we were acting as communities with rituals that we can only assume had importance to the people. The spear points were also of a higher quality than those made by other hominids. A new technique was being developed that probably made us more effective hunters. Perhaps a higher quality diet was partly responsible for an increase in a protein linked to brain size at this time called ASPM and microcephalin. Or was the increase down to other factors. It was the time of primal worship so maybe this factor should be considered as a stimulant to our evolution of consciousness and of consequently of our physiology.

Worship is the act of inner reflection and looking for meaning in the outside world through the use of the inner environment of mind. This could have been vital in our cognitive development as a species. How deep the symbol runs, is an important question we should stop to ask ourselves. Symbolizing rebirth among other things the serpent is found in an array of cultures. In cultures that incorporated astrotheology the serpent was vital. It was the constellation Alpha Draconis, which held the pole star at its centre. Was this the observation that the ancient shamans paid reverence to or was it some other association?

The Kalahari Desert is now home to the San Bushmen and they retain myths of the python, elephant and giraffe, with the python being saved from the water by the elephant. Is it possible that people 100,000 years ago observed the flow of rivers to be like serpents? If they did then perhaps they understood the concept of damming and channelling water. If we were working collectively to benefit a wider community I think this would tell us a great deal about the capabilities that we had as a new species.

The serpent would later develop all sorts of other meanings as a symbol of esoteric traditions, which I’d like to cover in the future but for me this is enough to show that something was happening between 70 to 100,000 years ago. There were disasters but there was also the rise of worship and potentially signs of communities manipulating the environment for the greater good. Still why was this happening, was it that the disasters were making people fearful, trying to explain what was going on and they thought of it as punishment caused by something beyond their comprehension or did they view it as a cycle of destruction and creation. It certainly seems like this period had a positive and negative effect on the populations, both ultimately assisting our growth as a species.

We are humans and that word is made up of hu and man. Hu is the original name for God and stems from the Sanskrit meaning ‘to invoke’ and ‘to call upon’. Thus it is striking that with the first signs of worship, reflection and abstract thought, a jump in evolution occurred and we would later call ourselves humans being God + Man. However, for the modern humans to succeed in colonizing the land outside of Africa, the other side of God, the punisher through nature would also be called forth and have to be overcome. Huge natural disasters the world over put a strain on all populations of hominids, the punisher had come or so many would have thought. The majority of people who think this way probably ended up victims to nature because they may have looked for divine intervention to save them and God only helps those who help themselves. The wise amongst the people may have thought that they had the spirit inside of them. They may have looked for omens in nature and been more alert to messages to the mind that would ultimately assist them. This may have been intuitions or actual knowledge they had been acquiring regarding the forces of nature, preserved in the emerging subconscious waiting to be called upon in crisis. It was sufficient for a significant enough sized population to have made it out of Africa and to succeed in colonizing the earth with the new found abilities.

With all of the evidence it seems likely that Toba was a supervolcanic eruption that may have caused a 6 to 10 year winter. The importance of survival would therefore be to stay warm and the use of fire was now essential. We know that fire was known in Africa and this may have been a distinct advantage that modern humans now had over the struggling archaic species. We know that a great many of the total population was wiped out but we do not know for sure if Neanderthals were aware of fire. It is likely that if they did know about it they were not as dextrous or knowledgeable or adept at using it.

So for the record, the evidence would appear to show that at an important time in her-story, we hit a critical point and experienced many leaps in consciousness, culture and capabilities. Revering the serpent and perhaps taking wisdom from the meditation and reflection that the ceremonies and rituals around this early form of worship brought. The knowing of fire for warmth, water for thirst, earth for hunger and perhaps air for the spirit and consciousness, listening to the wind but perhaps also developing the breath and the use of speech even if it was perhaps primitive, tonal and guttural sounds. We had to start somewhere and as the presence of ASPM and mircocephalin in higher quantities is related to the increase in communication, we have another factor at this time that made us more than we ever had been before. It is relatively recently considering that hominids are thought to have evolved some 2.5 million years ago. In the time since 100,000 years BP we have probably evolved more new adaptations in consciousness and physiology since the whole time previous. All things considered, that speaks volumes for how far we
‘hu-mans’ have come since we were ready to depart from the cradle of Africa.
If God or spirit was within man then what was it that was causing all the disasters? Well funnily enough the same thing may have caused mutations within the brain and the global catastrophes. That being cosmic radiation. This is a theory being put forward by among others, Andrew Collins, whom I respect greatly. He cites the British anthropologist Dennis Montgomery as the source of the theory and I would have to agree with his observations as being highly significant. He points to ice core samples containing a specific isotope linked with cosmic radiation that can cause germ-like mutations in humans and animals, called Berillyium-10 (10Be). This has since been verified by Dr. Meinel of NASA who has concluded that there were three periods of intense cosmic radiation in the last 100,000 years. The first was 75,000 years ago, then 35,000 years and finally 14,000 years previous. In future entries I hope to explore the latter periods of cosmic influx because I believe that cosmic rays, these highly charged photon particles are spirit in an important sense. They cause disasters by heating the atmosphere and exciting the vibrations of the earth but they also cause mutations and excite and expand our consciousness. Perhaps this is important to our current situation and this is something that Andrew Collins has explored and his thoughts on Cygnus will definitely be mentioned in future entries. However, now we should ask what was the source of the cosmic rays? According to Meinel the likely origin is the constellation Alpha Draconis, the very same constellation that is wrapped around the polestar. He has pinpointed the Cat’s Eye nebula but no further evidence has been put forward to support this.

So when we read in Genesis about the Serpent tricking Eve and the onset of sin perhaps we should hold a mirror against this and look at the alternative view. Humans begin worshiping a serpent as catastrophes begin to strike and language begins to develop. We have minds capable of art and if there is any truth to the concept of sin then I believe the serpent signifies the point when we gained morality and ergo the potential to distinguish right from wrong. This way the allegory of Genesis holds true and eating of the apple and acquiring knowledge of good and evil is a metaphor of our newfound intelligence.

References:

http://www.apollon.uio.no/vis/art/2006_4/Artikler/python_english

http://www.hf.uio.no/iakh/for-ansatte/avis/2006/oktober/botsw.html

http://wysinger.homestead.com/africanhistory.html

http://www.andrewcollins.com/page/articles/Cygnus_Cosmic_Rays_Evolution.htm

http://www.rationalskepticism.org/evolution/human-brain-evolution-aspm-and-foxp2-t1784.html

http://www.jqjacobs.net/anthro/paleo/genome.html

http://www.jqjacobs.net/anthro/paleo/bottleneck.html