What You Believe Is What You Get
Spirituality and religion as shaping factors of human society
They say that to know where one goes, one first have to know where one comes from. Thus, in the previous article I have outlined a brief historical timeline of birth of civilization. This knowledge is essential for us to tackle the problems of our era with more understanding, because as another saying goes, those who cannot learn from the errors in history are bound to repeat them.
In this article I will attempt a slightly non-traditional take on the cultural and religious views of Proto-Indo-Europeans, also dubbed Aryans, which I touched upon very briefly in previous piece, which, however, have a stark association with major shift in social order of human society at the beginning of fourth millennium BC.
But before I go any further into that topic, I have to introduce some relevant key concepts that will establish the context of this etude.
One of many defining traits of the animal we know as Homo sapiens sapiens is the ability of symbolic thinking. We could spend a substantial portion of time with lengthy arguments about what caused that propensity to emerge, but suffice to say, it’s the feature of humans that is responsible for our capacity to perceive world in a holistic way and is probably also the greatest difference between us and creatures we traditionally call animals. In other words, it is the attribute that is at the root of all our religious and philosophical views.
Since the emergence of this evolutionary quirk (ca. 50000 years ago, but probably even much, much sooner), humans tried to grasp the meaning of the world they inhabited and which they gradually started to perceive in a substantially different way. This shift in perception resulted in birth of what we know today as animism, a worldview that can be traced back at least 40–35 thousands of years as the archaeological findings attest (Lion-man of the Hohlenstein-Stadel).
Although the original shape of animism is most probably lost to us, we can still look at cultures where it survived to this very day. Taking hints from various religions and cultures ranging from Shintoism, which due to influence of other cultures and philosophies during the millennia transformed into a full-fledged religion, through Native American and African shamanism, as well as Kalash people of Pakistan, all the way to the Anito religion of Philippines and Australian Aboriginal Dreaming, we can arrive at animism’s defining features.
Thus, animism can be described as a worldview that sees world as essentially polytheistic and dual in its nature. On one side there’s material world where all beings, including humans, animals, plants, and even natural forces, are on equal footing with each other, while all are imbued with the same universal Spirit which originates and is accessible in a spiritual world on the other side and which is the source of and also animates the material manifestations (hence animism). The crucial role then plays a shaman or witch doctor, one who can access the spiritual world through various forms of trance and visions, and serves as a conscious bridge between the material and spiritual as well as an emissary who can contact all unmanifested spirits.
Politically correct progressives will probably go berserk, but it’s an indisputable fact that as you can find a man more logical than the most logical woman, so you can find a woman more emotional than the most emotional man. Thus, it should not surprise us that shamanic practice was early on (and in some regions still is) a predominantly feminine affair.
Another contributing factor was the fact that women, who performed the gathering part in hunter-gatherer societies, and also spent a lot of time taking care of children and household in general (which was relatively peaceful activity as compared to hunting), were the first in the tribe to encounter psychoactive plants and they also had the safety needed to perform shamanic practices. This is further supported by another observation — in many cases the shaman was an elderly or disabled person, simply one who could not, for one reason or another, participate in day-to-day activities of the tribe.
And so animism was setting the tone of human society all across the globe for at least 30–40 millennia, roughly 5000 years into the era of agriculture and sedentary way of life, until Proto-Indo-Europeans, aka Aryans, started to spread from their Urheimat, at the end of stone and beginning of copper age, 5000–6000 years ago.
Everything we know about the history of these people comes predominantly from comparative linguistic and religion studies, and so we know little about their origins. There are several theories in this regard, but according to Kurgan hypothesis, the one considered “mainstream” and which is also the one supported by DNA studies the most, Aryans were a group of nomadic pastoral tribes that emerged in Pontic-Caspian steppe ca. 6000 years ago.
This in itself would be nothing remarkable, if it were not for one significant detail — Aryans discovered that spiritual and material world are one and the same. One may argue that similarities between Vedas and Bible that hint at this knowledge can be of later origin, but the impact on societies that came into contact with this ideas is clearly visible in archaeological records.
Now, let me digress a little bit. We know that Aryans introduced Cannabis to various cultures with which they came into contact. We also know that Cannabis sativa spread from Central Asia, or current-day Kazakhstan, around 8000–10000 BC, an area not that far from hypothesized Urheimat of Aryans. There’s also a widespread knowledge among Cannabis users that while indica strains are more sedative and “sleepy”, sativa strains are upbeat and inspirational to the point of auditory and visual hallucinations.
So, it’s not hard to imagine a shepherd in a steppe that stretches from horizon to horizon like a sea, with nothing much to do except fending off some wolves from time to time, being high as kite for hours, days, even months on end, observing nature, his mind, whatever. Also, let’s not forget that that same shepherd was brought up in an animistic society. And suddenly it hits him — he realizes that he, his I, is the Spirit.
No doubt that such discovery would be shared with whole tribe. No doubt that it would affect and transform all worldviews, cosmologies, and myths. It would also explain why some researchers think that Aryans “invented” patrilineal society, go figure. But of course this is just my idyllic rustic interpretation of what could have taken place.
In any case, you can imagine the astonishment of inhabitants of what would later became Mesopotamia when one day a group of strange folks claiming to be gods descended from Armenian highlands (or appearing in Anatolia if we strictly adhere to Kurgan hypothesis), and it’s certainly not a coincidence, that egalitarian societies of Levant suddenly saw a rise of “godly priests” who stand above common folks at around the time they came into contact with Aryans.
But one may rightfully wonder what went wrong, because that shepherd who realized the Absolute Truth while herding his flock through the steppe, had to realize that whatever he meets on Earth and elsewhere is exactly the same.
Maybe his message was not understood even by his own tribe, and his compatriots simply said, “OK, we are gods. Great. It means we are superior to anyone else, so let’s go and conquer,” and this would also be in line with what some researchers claim, that is, that Aryans were essentially one of the first conquerors. Then again, the non-dual understanding is pretty good preserved in Vedas and also Bible [1] (which, if we are totally anal, reaches all the way back to the city of Ur at the time of arrival of Aryans), which suggests that Aryans must have had quite a good grip on the whole affair.
So maybe it was just an alluring idea for tribes in Levant who already wrestled with rising population and shrinking resources. Or maybe it was just something literally lost in translation. Then again, why would there be a defense of a caste society in Baghavad Gita (e.g. 2.31), is beyond me. Was it added later, exactly as all the postdictions in the Bible?
Well, maybe we will never know the exact point when and where the things got screwed up. We may also never know precisely why it happened. But, at least, we know what and how it got perverted.
Seems good enough for me.
[1] Among many other similarities between Judaism and Hinduism that point at their common origin, latest research also shows that cannabis was used in ancient Israelite ceremonies, similarly as is the case with sadhus, etc. in India to this very day.
