Shamanism and Cognitive Evolution
نویسنده
چکیده
based on cross-cultural research. This approach expands earlier theoretical interpretations offered for the significance of cave art that fail to account for central aspects of cave art material. Clottes & Lewis-Williams (1998), Smith (1992) and Ryan (1999) concur in the interpretation that neurologically-based shamanic practices were central to cave art (cf. Lewis-Williams 1997a,b). Clottes & Lewis-Williams suggest that, in spite of the temporal distance, we have better access to Upper Palaeolithic peoples’ religious experiences than other aspects of their lives because of the neuropsychological basis of those experiences. The commonality in the experiences of shamanism across space and time provides a basis for forming ‘some idea of the social and mental context out of which Upper Palaeolithic religion and art came’ (Clottes & LewisMichael Winkelman
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