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Ian Crofton skryf in 50 gebeure in die wêreldgeskiedenis wat u regtig moet weet, met betrekking tot arbeidsverdeling in pre-historiese jagter-versamelaarsverenigings:
Voor die koms van die boerdery was daar 'n mate van arbeidsverdeling. In jagters-versamelaarsverenigings het die vroue gewoonlik die meeste bymekaargekom en die mans die meeste gejag, terwyl sekere individue, soms met een of ander gestremdheid, sjamane geword het.
Omdat die boek 'n kort opsomming vir 'n leekgehoor is, is daar geen bewyse vir hierdie stelling nie.
My vraag is, hoe weet ons dat sommige gestremdes sjamane geword het in pre-historiese, jagter-versamelaarsverenigings?
U bron verwys moontlik na die moontlike verband tussen skisofrenie, of meer spesifiek ligter weergawes daarvan, en godsdienstigheid. Gevalle van "besit" en "innerlike stemme" toegeskryf aan gode en geeste wat uiteindelik tot georganiseerde godsdiens gelei het, kon inderdaad ligte gevalle van skisofrenie gewees het. Die teorie is afkomstig van Paul Radin in die dertigerjare.
Interessante lesing oor die onderwerp: dr. Robert Sapolsky oor biologiese onderbou van godsdiens. Hy bespreek presies die onderwerp waaroor u omstreeks 12:00 wonder. Daar is ook 'n interessante punt oor die verband tussen ritualisme en OCD omstreeks 30:00.
Watter bewyse het ons dat gestremdes in pre-historiese tye sjamane geword het? - Geskiedenis
Die rol van dwelms in die voorgeskiedenis:
Die talle voorbeelde van 'dwelm' -gebruik in die voorgeskiedenis dui daarop dat dit moontlik 'n belangrike rol gespeel het in ons verbeeldingryke ontwikkeling. Ons weet byvoorbeeld nou dat die blomme wat verband hou met Neanderthaler-begrafnisse psigo-aktiewe eienskappe gehad het (Leroi-Gouriian 1984)
Die vraag is nie of dwelms in die voorgeskiedenis gebruik is nie, maar eerder - in watter mate en waarvoor. Prehistoriese rotskuns en sjamanese beelde dui daarop dat mense al duisende jare lank stowwe gebruik om verstand te verander. Daar word selfs voorgestel dat hulle moontlik 'n evolusionêre rol in ons geestelike ontwikkeling gespeel het.
| Bewyse vir dwelmgebruik in die voorgeskiedenis: |
In 1988 het David Lewis-Williams van die Universiteit van Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, Suid-Afrika, een van die argeologie se langste kontroversies geloods toe hy voorgestel het dat die lewendige grotskilderye van Bo-Paleolitiese Europa vervaardig word deur sjamane wie se bewussyn deur dwelms verander is of self-geïnduseerde trances. (10) Die volgende voorbeelde dui daarop dat sy voorstel inhoud kan hê.
In sy boek 'Supernatural' beweer Graham Hancock dat sjamaniese ervarings gelei het tot die skielike ontwikkeling van kuns, simboliese denke en vroeë beskawing (pp. 29-31).
Of ons sy spore in Australië, Asië -Afrika of Europa vind, dit is eenvoudig onmoontlik om die uniekheid en eienaardigheid van die evolusionêre gebeurtenis te oordryf waardeur ons ingetrek is in die volledig moderne bewussyn en die volledig moderne kapasiteit vir simboliek en kultuur, godsdiens en kuns. Geen voorouer in die menslike afkoms het ooit voorheen enige vorm van simboliek gebruik nie, en dit is onnodig om te sê dat geen ander diersoort dit ooit gedoen het nie. Maar die aanskakeling van die mensdom se vermoë om simbole te maak tussen ongeveer 100,000 en 40,000 jaar gelede was die verandering wat alles verander het.
(Meer oor sjamanisme)
Die Pynappelklier.
Daar is talle uitbeeldings van 'koppe' of 'dennebolle' in antieke en heilige kuns. Die dennebolle het 'n sterk simboliek, 'n verwysing na die 'Derde-oog' of 'pijnappelklier', wat so genoem word vanweë die ooreenstemming in vorm. Die dennebolle word tradisioneel verbind met onsterflikheid en kennis. Die Pineal -klier word deur Light geaktiveer, en dit beheer die verskillende bioritmes van die liggaam. Dit werk in harmonie met die hipotalamusklier, wat die liggaam se dors, honger, seksuele begeerte en die biologiese klok bepaal, wat ons verouderingsproses bepaal.
&kwotasie. A. Wallis Budge het opgemerk dat die oorledene in sommige van die papirusse wat die ingang van die siele van die dooies in die regtersaal van Osiris illustreer, 'n dennebolle aan die kroon van sy kop geheg het. Die Griekse mistici het ook 'n simboliese staf, die boonste punt in die vorm van 'n dennebolle, wat die thyrsus van Bacchus genoem is. In die menslike brein is daar 'n klein klier wat die pineale liggaam genoem word, wat die heilige oog van die ou mense is, en wat ooreenstem met die derde oog van die Cyclops. & quot Manly P. Hall.
Die Egiptiese staf van Osiris, dateer uit ongeveer 1224 vC, beeld twee ineengestrengelde slange op wat bymekaarkom om 'n pen-ekon te ontmoet.
(Foto: Egyptian Museum, Turyn, Italië)
Moderne geleerdes en filosowe het kennis geneem van die personeel se simboliese parallelle met die Indiese Kundalini, 'n geestelike energie in die liggaam wat uitgebeeld word as opgerolde slange wat opstaan van die basis van die ruggraat na die Derde Oog (Pineal Gland) op die oomblik van verligting . Ontwaakte Kundalini verteenwoordig die samesmelting en belyning van die Chakras, en word gesê dat dit die enigste manier is om die 'goddelike wysheid' te bring wat pure vreugde, suiwer kennis en suiwer liefde bevat.
In 1997 het die Britse dr. Jennifer Luke die pynappelklier omvattend gedokumenteer as die primêre doelwit vir die ophoping van fluoried in ons liggame (5), waar dit die pynappel verkalk, die bloedvloei belemmer en die basiese funksies van ons derde oog verstop. Deur die openbare fluoried vanaf geboorte te voed, beweer kritici dat ons groter geestelike vermoëns verdof word deur ons biologiese portaal chemies te vertroebel tot geestelike bewustheid.
Die psigofarmakoloog Rick Strassman glo dat die Derde Oog/Pineaalklier die bron is van die psigedeliese Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) in ons liggame (6). Strassman het veronderstel dat groot hoeveelhede DMT in ons liggame vrygestel word tydens verhoogde toestande van geestelike bewussyn, soos geboorte, dood en naby-dood ervarings-of miskien tydens die ontwaking van ons Kundalini in 'n oomblik van Verligting.
Gesintetiseerde DMT, of plante wat DMT bevat, word dikwels gebruik as ontspanningspsychedelika, of in sjamanese seremonies, soos die Ayahuasca -seremonie van Suid -Amerika. Gebruikers van DMT en/of Ayahuasca rapporteer dikwels intens entheogeniese ervarings van geestelike ontwaking, kontak met entiteite van bonatuurlike of geestelike oorsprong, en die uitbreiding of samestelling van tyd.
Die kultus van die sampioen:
Wyle Maya -argeoloog dr. Stephan F. de Borhegyi, was oortuig dat hallusinogene sampioenrituele 'n sentrale aspek van Maya -godsdiens is. Hy het hierdie teorie gebaseer op sy identifisering van 'n sampioenklipkultus wat omstreeks 1000 v.C. in die hoogland van Guatemala en die Stille Oseaan ontstaan het. saam met 'n trofeekopkultus wat verband hou met die Meso -Amerikaanse balspel. In die meeste gevalle word die sampioenbeeld geassosieer met rituele opoffering in die onderwêreld, met jaguartransformasie en eindes van die kalenderperiode, en met die onthoofding en opstanding van die ondergaande songod deur 'n paar gode wat verband hou met die planeet Venus. Sampioene was ook nou verbonde aan Tlaloc en die rituele oorlogvoering in sy naam, bekend as Tlaloc -oorlogvoering.
Hierdie figuur het 'n Flyagaric -sampioen 'Hidden in plain sight'. Dit simboliseer die transformasie in die 'Jaguar God' na die gebruik van die hallusinogeen. Hierdie beeld verskyn in die Olmec -kuns van so vroeg as 1200 vC. (7)
Psigedeliese sampioene is deur die Mazatec shamen die 'Heilige Kinders' genoem.
Terrence Mckenna: Die evolusie van verbeelding
Dit is 'n bekende feit dat psigotropiese middels veranderde bewussynstoestande veroorsaak. Terrence McKenna het aangevoer dat dit 'n toonaangewende stimulant is in die evolusie van die menslike brein en die oorsprong van taal en godsdiens. Hierdie teorie het nie sy oorsprong by Mckenna nie. In 1986, kort voor sy afsterwe, stel Gordon Wasson sy eie teorie oor die oorsprong van godsdiens uit hallusinogene sampioene, spesifiek Amanita muscaria, met voorbeelde uit verskeie kulture wat hy voorheen beskryf het, in besonderhede. Boonop het Wasson ook geglo dat Soma verantwoordelik was vir:
Dit is 'n bekende feit dat psigotropiese middels veranderde bewussynstoestande veroorsaak. Terrence McKenna het aangevoer dat dit 'n toonaangewende stimulant is in die evolusie van die menslike brein en die oorsprong van taal en godsdiens. Hierdie teorie het nie sy oorsprong by Mckenna nie. In 1986, kort voor sy afsterwe, stel Gordon Wasson sy eie teorie oor die oorsprong van godsdiens uit hallusinogene sampioene, spesifiek Amanita muscaria, met voorbeelde uit verskeie kulture wat hy voorheen beskryf het, in besonderhede. Boonop het Wasson ook geglo dat Soma verantwoordelik was vir:'n Groot uitbreiding in die geheue van die mens moes die gawe gewees het wat die mensdom van sy voorgangers onderskei het, en ek vermoed dat hierdie uitbreiding in die geheue gelei het tot 'n gelyktydige groei in die gawe van taal, wat hierdie twee kragte in die mens daardie selfbewussyn genereer, wat die derde van die drie -enige eienskappe wat die mens alleen uniek maak. Daardie drie gawes - geheue, taal en selfbewussyn - sluit so aan dat dit onafskeidbaar lyk, die aspekte van 'n eienskap wat ons in staat gestel het om al die wonders wat ons nou ken, te bereik. & Quot (2)
'N Gewysigde weergawe van hierdie teorie is later in die laat 1980's deur McKenna ontwikkel. Sy teorie verskil van Wasson deurdat Mckenna geglo het dat sampioene wat die entheogeen psilocybin, en hy sê spesifiek Stropharia cubensis, was verantwoordelik vir die oorsprong van godsdiens en die ontwikkeling van geheue, taal en selfbewussyn. Volgens Mckenna het albei gebeurtenisse in Afrika plaasgevind en het dit begin tydens die prehistoriese, nomadiese, jag/versamelperiode van die mens se bestaan. Die gevolgtrekking dat Stropharia cubensis was & quotThe Tree of Knowledge & quot was gebaseer op die uitskakeling van plante wat entheogene bevat wat in Afrika beskikbaar is. Mckenna het die oorweegde plante verder beperk tot diegene wat entheogene met indoolverbindings het, wat kenmerkend sterk visioenêre enteogene is. Met hierdie voorvereistes was die lys van hallusinogene plante kort:Tabernanthe iboga en Peganum harmala (Siriese Rue). Alhoewel dit bekend is dat beide deur godsdienstige kultusse gebruik word, is hierdie spesies uit die weg geruim. Die wortels van Tabernanthe iboga bevat die alkaloïed ibogaine, die entheogeen, word in baie groter hoeveelhede benodig as wat die vroeë mens normaalweg tydens 'n maaltyd sou eet. Boonop word die gebruik daarvan tot in die 19de teruggevoer. Terwyl Peganum harmala kan gevind word deur die droë deel van die Middellandse See -Noord -Afrika, daar is geen geskiedenis van die gebruik hier nie, en dit moet weer te hoog gekonsentreerd wees of ten minste gekombineer moet word met dimethyltryptamine (DMT) voordat dit 'n hallusinogene effek kan veroorsaak. Met die uitskakeling van hierdie twee spesies het McKenna slegs psilocybin -sampioene agtergelaat. Hierdie sampioene kan grootliks gevind word op die mis van die diere wat in die grasvelde wei waar hulle gejag is. Stropharia cubensis is uitgesonder omdat dit die enigste spesie is wat vermoedelik psilosibien in gekonsentreerde hoeveelhede produseer en vry is van ander verbindings wat newe-effekte kan veroorsaak. Dit was die toevoeging van die Stropharia na die dieet van die vroeë mens wat gelei het tot beter sig ('n voordeel vir jagters), seks, taal en rituele aktiwiteite (godsdiens onder hulle), as dit geëet word. McKenna het voorgestel dat die sampioen bogenoemde eienskappe verhoog die gedrag van individue verander. Hierdie gedragsveranderinge bevorder die toenemende taalgebruik, wat lei tot 'n toename in woordeskat om te kommunikeer tydens jag en versameling. Alhoewel evolusie op genetiese vlak plaasgevind het, is die toename in mutasies as gevolg van die verandering in dieet wat plaasgevind het, volgens McKenna, sosiale evolusie, as gevolg van die sampioenverbruik, was dit verantwoordelik vir die bogenoemde veranderinge.
'Terselfdertyd wat taal ontwikkel het, het godsdiens ook begin. As dit op vlakke geneem word wat dronkenskap veroorsaak, kom daar 'n gevoel van ekstase voor, met hallusinasie en toegang tot wat die gebruiker sou sien as die ryk van die bonatuurlike. Dit het gelei tot die oorsprong van die sjamaan wie se plig is om met die onsigbare verstand van die natuur te kommunikeer '.
Artikel: Die Lycaeum. (1992)
Die idee dat die gebruik van hallusinogene 'n bron van inspirasie vir sommige vorme van prehistoriese rotskuns moet wees, is nie nuut nie. Na 'n kort ondersoek na gevalle van sulke kuns, is hierdie artikel van plan om sy aandag te vestig op 'n groep rotskilderye in die Sahara-woestyn, die werke van pre-neolitiese vroeë versamelaars, waarin sampioene se herhalings herhaaldelik voorgestel word. Die poligromiese oestye, aanbidding en die aanbied van sampioene, en groot gemaskerde & quot; bedek met sampioene, om nie te praat van ander belangrike besonderhede nie, laat ons dink dat ons te doen het met 'n antieke hallusinogene sampioenskultus. Wat opmerklik is aan hierdie etnomikologiese werke, wat 7 000 - 9 000 jaar gelede vervaardig is, is dat dit inderdaad die oudste menslike kultuur kan weerspieël wat nog gedokumenteer is, waarin die rituele gebruik van hallusinogene sampioene eksplisiet voorgestel word. Soos die vaders van die moderne etnomikologie (en in die besonder R. Gordon Wasson) gedink het, toon hierdie Sahariese getuienis dat die gebruik van hallusinogene teruggaan na die paleolitiese tydperk en dat die gebruik daarvan altyd plaasvind binne kontekste en rituele van 'n mysfico-godsdienstige natuur.
Wat rook hulle in Egipte?
In 'n artikel van een bladsy wat in Naturwissenschaften verskyn het, het die Duitse wetenskaplike Svetla Balabanova (1992) en twee van haar kollegas bevindings van kokaïen, hasj en nikotien by Egiptiese mummies gerapporteer. Die bevindings is onmiddellik as onwaarskynlik geïdentifiseer omdat twee van die stowwe slegs van Amerikaanse plante afkomstig is - kokaïen Erythroxylon coca, en nikotien van Nicotiana tabacum. Die suggestie dat sulke verbindings hul weg na Egipte kon gevind het voor Columbus se ontdekking van Amerika, was klaarblyklik onmoontlik.
Hierdie 'beelde' op die tempelmure van Dendera (links) en Abydoss (regs) dui op 'n verband tussen die seremoniële aard van die tempels en die inaseming van 'n 'brandende stof'.
Die studie is gedoen as deel van 'n deurlopende program om die gebruik van hallusinogene stowwe in antieke samelewings te ondersoek. Die skrywers self was nogal verbaas oor die bevindinge (Discovery, 1997), maar het hul resultate ondanks die feit dat dit die belangrikste fokuspunt van kritiek was in die volgende deel van aturwissenschaften. Van die nege geëvalueerde mummies het almal tekens van kokaïen en hasj Tetrahydrocannabinol getoon), terwyl almal behalwe een positief getoets het vir nikotien. Dit is ook interessant dat die konsentrasies van die verbindings ander gebruike as die van misbruik suggereer. (Byvoorbeeld, moderne dwelmverslaafdes het dikwels konsentrasies kokaïen en nikotien in hul hare onderskeidelik 75 en 20 keer hoër as dié wat in die mummiehaarmonsters voorkom.) Dit is selfs moontlik dat die hoeveelhede wat gevind word, te hoog kan wees as gevolg van konsentrasie in liggaamsweefsel. deur die tyd.
Sonder twyfel het die studie belangstelling in verskillende dissiplines gewek. Soos Balabanova et. al. voorspel, & quot. die resultate maak 'n heeltemal nuwe navorsingsveld oop wat aspekte van die vorige menslike lewenswyse ontrafel, ver buite [basiese] basiese biologiese rekonstruksie. & quot
Volg hierdie skakel vir 'n volledige en gebalanseerde oorsig van die onderwerp:
Antieke Griekeland: Die profetiese orakels.
Beide Minoïese en Griekse beelde getuig van 'n verband tussen die gode en papawers soos hieronder gesien.
Links: Goue seëlring, Knossos. 1500 v.C. Demeter, onder die dubbelbyl en die wêreldboom, gee drie papawerkoppe aan Persephone. Regs: sakramentele vaas in die National Archaeological Museum of Taranto. 450 vC, beeld Demeter se seun, Dionysos, 'n kroon van opium -papawers uit.
'N Vereniging tussen papawers en orakels kan gesien word in die uitstekende voorbeeld van Minoïese kuns hieronder. Wat die 'Slapende Godin' of die 'Poppy Goddess' genoem is, is een van verskeie beeldjies wat in 'n kamer sonder vensters ontdek is. Haar houding is die van aanbidding of gebed, net soos die ander beeldjies. Die simboliek van die papawers is duidelik inaggenome die reputasie daarvan, en die snitte aan die kante is 'n bykomende aanduiding dat die papawers funksioneel is (medisinaal of as 'n trans-toestand).
Die profetiese vermoëns van die Delphiese orakels was al meer as duisend jaar bekend.
Hierdie Minoïese beeldjie van die wyfie wat aanbid is, dra 'n diadeem van opium -papawerkoppe, elk geverf met 'n gleuf vir die ekstraksie van die sap.
Dwelms en die Eleusiese raaisels.
'Sommige geleerdes meen dat die krag van die Eleusiniese raaisels afkomstig was van die werking van die kykeon as 'n psigedeliese middel. Gars kan geparasiteer word deur die swam ergot, wat die psigo -aktiewe alkaloïede lysergiensuur amied (LSA) bevat, 'n voorloper van LSD en ergonovien. Dit is moontlik dat 'n psigo -aktiewe drankie geskep is volgens bekende metodes van die dag. Die ingewydes, gevoelig vir hul vas en voorberei deur voorafgaande seremonies, is moontlik aangedryf deur die gevolge van 'n kragtige psigo -aktiewe drankie in openbarende gemoedstoestande met diepgaande geestelike en intellektuele gevolge '.
'Terwyl moderne geleerdes getuienis voorgelê het wat hul siening ondersteun dat 'n drankie gedrink is as deel van die seremonie, bly die presiese samestelling van die agent omstrede. Moderne preparate van kykeon met ergot-geparasiteerde gars het onoortuigende resultate opgelewer, hoewel Shulgin en Shulgin beide ergonovien en LSA beskryf wat bekend is as LSD-agtige effekte. Terence McKenna het aangevoer dat die raaisels rondom 'n verskeidenheid Psilocybin -sampioene gefokus was, en dat ander entheogene plante, soos Amanita muscaria -sampioene, ook voorgestel is, maar dat daar tans geen konsensus bereik is nie. Die grootte van die geleentheid kan Amanita- of Psilocybe -sampioene as aktiewe bestanddeel uitsluit, aangesien dit onwaarskynlik is dat daar genoeg wilde sampioene vir alle deelnemers sou gewees het. 'N Onlangse hipotese dui egter aan dat die teeltegnologie van Psilocybe nie in die ou Egipte onbekend was nie, waarvandaan dit maklik na Griekeland kon versprei het.
'' N Ander teorie is dat die kykeon 'n Ayahuasca -analoog was wat Syrian Rue (Peganum harmala) insluit, 'n struik wat dwarsdeur die Middellandse See groei en ook funksioneer as 'n monoamienoksidase -remmer. Die waarskynlikste kandidaat vir die DMT -bevattende plant, waarvan daar baie in die natuur is, sou 'n spesie Acacia wees. Ander geleerdes, wat die gebrek aan soliede bewyse opgemerk het en die kollektiewe eerder as individuele karakter van die inleiding tot die geheimenisse beklemtoon, beskou entheogene teorieë met skerp skeptisisme '.
Geneesmiddels in Prehistoriese Asië:
Artikel : (15 Aug. 2012) Nuus.Com.Au.
'Antieke Siberiese prinses begrawe met cannabis'.
'Tatoeëermerke so kompleks en abstrak soos enige moderne ontwerp is gevind op die lyk van die Siberiese prinses wat meer as 2500 jaar in die permafrost begrawe is. Twee krygers wat van dieselfde begraafplaas in die permafrost van die Ukok -plato herstel het, was soortgelyke fantastiese wesens. (Vinnige skakel)
Saam met die 'prinses' is ses saal-en-toom-perde, brons en goue ornamente begrawe-en 'n klein blikkie cannabis '.
Artikel (2008) Discovery.Com:
'Prehistoriese gekweekte dagga -stash gevind in China'
Volgens 'n onlangse verslag het navorsers byna twee kilogram dagga ontdek & quot gekweek vir psigo -aktiewe doeleindes & quot in die Gobi -woestyn, 'n gebied in die suide van Mongolië en die noordelike binneste Mongolië -streek van China. Volgens die navorsers is die dagga -stash ongeveer 2 700 jaar oud. Die volgende is 'n uittreksel uit die nuusberig
Byna twee pond stilgroen plantmateriaal is gevind in die graf van 'n 2700-jarige Kaukasiese man met 'n blou oog in die Gobi-woestyn, en is geïdentifiseer as die oudste dagga in die wêreld, volgens 'n koerant in die jongste uitgawe van die Journal of Experimental Botany.
'N Verskeidenheid toetse bewys dat die dagga oor sterk psigo -aktiewe eienskappe beskik en twyfel oor die teorie dat die ou mense slegs die plant vir hennep verbou het om klere, toue en ander voorwerpe te maak. Dit is moontlik dat die man 'n sjamaan was, maar dit is onbekend of die dagga vir geestelike of mediese doeleindes verbou is. Die stof is ook gevind in twee van die 500 Gushi -grafte wat tot dusver in die noordweste van China opgegrawe is . (Vinnige skakel)
By die Merv -oase, 'n bietjie wes van Urumchi (China), daar is 'n godsdienstige kompleks wat uit die tweede millenium vC dateer. In die belangrikste kamer, die 'wit kamer', is stoorvate wat spore van papaver en efedra bevat. Klaarblyklik bied die papawerderivate sulke pragtige hoogtepunte dat die ephedra gebruik moes word om te keer dat die sjamaan sy bewussyn verloor. (9)
Die Pazyryk-kruiwaens, (5de-3de eeu v.C.), Rusland: Die Pazyryk -grafte wat deur Rudenko ontdek is, was in 'n byna volmaakte toestand. Unieke artefakte wat gevind is tydens die opgrawing van die grafheuwels (kurgans) van Pazyryk in die oostelike deel van die Altai, op 'n hoogte van 1600 meter bo seespieël, sluit geraamtes en ongeskonde liggame van perde en gebalsemde mense in, tesame met 'n magdom artefakte, insluitend saal, rygoed, 'n strydwa, matte, klere, juweliersware, musiekinstrumente, amulette, gereedskap en, interessant, 'n & quotapparatus vir die inaseming van henneprook & quot. Stowwe uit Persië en China wat in die grafkelders gevind is, moes die Pazyryks op reise van duisende kilometers ver gekry het. (8)
Gebruik van dwelms in die Pre-Columbian Americas.
Artikel: Bulletin on Narcotics. Uitgawe 1, 1971 3-14. Deur Albert Hofmann.
'Die land van herkoms van die meerderheid en die belangrikste van die sogenaamde magie, dws hallusinogene middels, is Sentraal-Amerika. Magiese middels was reeds van groot belang in die ou Indiese kulture van Mexiko. Die Spaanse kroniekskrywers en natuurkundiges wat kort na die verowering van Mexiko deur Cortez na die land gekom het, noem in hul geskrifte 'n groot aantal plante met bedwelmende, stimulerende of narkotiese effekte. Hierdie plante was onbekend in die ou wêreld en is deur die Indiane gebruik in hul mediese praktyke en in hul godsdienstige seremonies. Die kultiese gebruik en goddelike aanbidding wat aan baie van hierdie middels gegee is, het die afkeuring van die Christelike sendelinge teëgekom, wat op enige manier probeer het om die Indiane van hierdie duiwel te bevry. Hulle was egter slegs gedeeltelik suksesvol in hierdie opsig. Die inheemse bevolking het in die geheim die medisyne wat deur hulle as heilig beskou word, steeds gebruik, selfs nadat hulle tot die Christendom bekeer is.
Drie towermedisyne is hoofsaaklik deur die Asteke en naburige stamme gebruik tydens hul godsdienstige seremonies en mediese praktyke, wat sterk beïnvloed is deur magiese konsepte. Hierdie middels word vandag nog vir dieselfde doel deur die toordokters in afgeleë distrikte van Mexiko gebruik. Hulle is: 1. peyotl, 'n kaktussoort 2. teonan catl, sekere blaarsampioene 3. ololiuqui, die sade van bindweeds.
Die eerste van hierdie toorkuns wat ontleed is, was peyotl, die kaktus Anhalonium Lewinii, wat aan die begin van die eeu gedoen is. Daar is gevind dat die alkaloïed -meskalien die psigo -beginsel van peyotl is. Hierdie ondersoeke word beskou as die eerste wetenskaplike studies op die gebied van psigotomimetika, en die twee pioniernavorsers wat dit uitgevoer het, Louis Lewin en Arthur Heffter, verdien 'n ereplek in die geskiedenis van psigotomimetiese navorsing '.
(Skakel na die volledige artikel)
Monsters uit die kas van tien sampioenbeeldjies wat in die stad Guatemala ontdek is en omstreeks 100 - 300 vC gedateer is.
Hoogs versierde snuittablette en -buise word gedurende die tydperke 3,4,5,6,7,8 gereeld as grafgoed aangetref. Tot dusver was die tipe medisyne wat in hierdie toebehore verbruik word, onduidelik. Uit die moderne stad Arica het natuurlike gemummifiseerde menslike liggame met oorvloedige hare 'n unieke geleentheid gebied om te toets vir hallusinogene plante wat in die voorgeskiedenis van die Andes verbruik word. Analise deur gaschromatografie en massaspektrometrie het die teenwoordigheid van harmine aangetoon. Die Banisteriopsis -wingerdstok, algemeen bekend as Ayahuasca, was die waarskynlike bron. Dit is die eerste bevestigde bewys van psigo-aktiewe plantverbruik in pre-Spaanse Andesbevolkings langs die kusstreek Atacama. Van die 32 mummiehaarmonsters wat ontleed is, het 3 mans positief getoets vir harmine. Hierdie alkaloïed help met die katalise en sinergiese effekte van kragtige hallusinogene middels. Die verbruik van harmine hou waarskynlik verband met medisinale praktyke en word nie uitsluitlik deur sjamane ingeneem nie. 'N Ander belangrike aspek van hierdie bewyse is dat Banisteriopsis 'n Amazone -plant is. Dit groei nie in die Atacama -kusstreek nie. Ons bevindings onthul dus uitgebreide handelsnetwerke in die antieke tyd tussen die kus, woestyn, hooglande en die Amazone -bekken.
'Ondersoeke na haarmonsters toon oorblyfsels van psigo -aktiewe stowwe in baie mummies wat in die Tiwanaku -kultuurmummies uit Noord -Chili voorkom, selfs dié van babas so jonk as 1 jaar, wat die belangrikheid van hierdie stowwe vir die Tiwanaku aantoon'. (10).
| Hallusinogene en die neolitiese megaliete: |
Gavr'inis, Frankryk - Donderdag 27 Januarie 2005 - Bangor Daily News.
'Neolitiese aardewerkvoorwerpe wat in die kamer gevind word, bevat spore van dagga'. (3)
Balfarg, Skotland: Die Balfarg henge is deel van 'n groter prehistoriese seremoniële kompleks in Fife, Skotland. erdewerk met groefware wat op die terrein gevind is, dateer uit ongeveer 2900 v.C. Sommige van die vaartuie is moontlik gebruik om swart Henbane (Hyoscyamus niger) wat 'n gif is, maar ook 'n kragtige hallusinogeen. Hierdie ontdekking word kortliks in die tydskrif Antiquity ondersoek in die artikel ' Die gebruik van henbane as 'n hallusinogeen op neolitiese rituele: 'n her-evaluering' (1)
Carrowmore, Ierland. (Terrein 4) - Gedateer ongeveer 4600 vC, bevat die oorblyfsels van 'n ganggraf wat die vroegste in die land kan wees. So 'n vroeë datum is egter omstrede. Hierdie graf is een van die kleinste volledige terreine in die begraafplaas en het die oorblyfsels van meer as 65 fragmente van geweerpenne opgelewer, waaronder sewe stukke met sampioenvormige koppe, asook meer as 30 kilo veras menslike been.
Skara Brae, Orkneys: Hallucinogene alkohol: 5 000 jaar oue spore van gegiste alkohol op graan - omring met hemlock en henbanewers wat naby Skara Brae in die Neolitiese metropool Orkney ontdek is. (Gourlay, 2001)
Hoe belangrik dit ook al is, alkohol is nie naastenby die volledige verhaal van geïnduseerde Neolitiese bewussynsverandering nie. In baie kulture word psigo-aktiewe middels en die gevolge daarvan beskou as 'n manier om kontak te maak met ander wêrelde, veral dié van die voorvaders in die konteks van 'n tempelgesentreerde seremonie. Rudgley (1999, p.137-141) het cannabis en/of opium voorgestel as waarskynlike kandidate in die vroeë westerse neolitiese tydperk, en 'n groeiende opinie wys in dieselfde rigting. (Devereux, 1997: Sherratt, 1997 Thomas, J., 1998) Die Orkney -brousel wat hierbo beskryf is, sal onthou word, is gemeng met henbane en hemlock. Henbane, draer van die transverwekkende, hallusinerende (en uiters giftige) geneesmiddel Hyoscyamine, is een van wat Sherratt (1996) die Saturnine-kruie noem. Sherratt vertel hoe die henbane gedurende die 1980's herwin is van koolzuurhoudende neolitiese pap, geëet uit Grooved Ware -erdewerk in die konteks van 'n lykhuis, Balfarg/Balbirnie in Fife, Skotland. Ontdekking in die 1920's van drie begraafkamers op die Jersey La Houghe Bie -terrein voeg gewig by Sherratt se tesis. David Keys berig dat die kamers & quot. bevat 21 potte wat gemerk is met 'n verbrande, harsagtige materiaal. Argeoloë het geglo dat dit afkomstig was van dwelms, moontlik opium of hasj. & Quot (6)
Uitsluiting en afhanklikheid
In die vroeë tye was kinders wat met gestremdhede gebore is, verborge en soms selfs vermoor. Gevoelens van skaamte en skuld word dikwels geassosieer met die geboorte van 'n kind met 'n gestremdheid. Soms is die gestremdheid die skuld vir die sondes van familielede. Selfs namate gestremdes meer aanvaar word, beskou die samelewing gestremdheid as 'n persoonlike tragedie waarmee die individu en die gesin die hoof moet bied. Gevoelens van medelye en liefdadigheidsaksies is tipies by ander opgewek. Selfs suksesvolle individue soos Franklin D. Roosevelt het hul gestremdhede probeer wegsteek. Vroeër het organisasies gefokus op die voorkoming en genesing van gestremdhede. Suksesvolle befondsingsveldtogte, tot vandag toe, deel dikwels beelde van hulpelose kinders met gestremdhede wat blykbaar tot 'n ellendige lewe gedoem is. In die 40's en 50's het ouers georganiseer en gepleit vir opvoeding en dienste vir hul kinders met gestremdhede, maar die kinders is nie gereeld aangemoedig om vir hulself te pleit nie. Kinders met gestremdhede het selde suksesvolle volwassenes met gestremdhede teëgekom.
Verskillende soorte sjamane
Alhoewel Westerlinge die algemene term 'sjamaan' gebruik het om al die magiese stambeoefenaars van Siberië en Mongolië te beskryf, is hulle in die praktyk verdeel in verskillende tipes, kategorieë of klasse met spesifieke magiese pligte en verantwoordelikhede. Met behulp van Engelse terminologie, het dit 'veroweraars' ingesluit wat geeste ontbied en beheer het, profete of sielkundiges wat die toekoms voorsien het, towenaars wat 'swart magie' beoefen het, trance-werkers wat in geestelike vorm na die ander wêreld gereis het, genesers wat kundiges was in volksgeneeskunde en kruie, en gidse vir die dooies wat lyke uitgelê en begrafnisritte gehou het.
Die sjamaan-genesers was dikwels vroulik en spesialiseer in gesondheidsake wat verband hou met vrugbaarheid van mense en diere, seksualiteit en kinders. Hulle was herkenbaar aan hul kenmerkende rompe gemaak van dierevel en helderkleurige wolhoede. In plaas van die rituele trommel wat die sjamane gebruik, het hulle 'n sywaaier en gebedskrale gedra. Ongelukkig, toe die Boeddhisme na Siberië en Mongolië kom, is baie van hierdie vroulike genesers meedoënloos vervolg en uitgeroei deur die vroulike monnike. Gevolglik het hul uitgebreide kennis van kruie en plante wat vir natuurlike genesing gebruik word, heeltemal verlore gegaan of deur Boeddhistiese genesers oorgeneem en slegs in 'n vernederde of verdunde vorm beoefen.
'N Ander vroulike praktisyn was die sjamaan-vroedvrou, wat haar krag van die moederlyn van familiale afkoms geërf het. Behalwe dat sy verseker het dat babas fisies veilig hierdie wêreld binnekom, was sy ook verantwoordelik vir hul geestelike beskerming teen bose invloede tydens die geboorte en hul welstand as kinders. In hierdie sin het sy die rol van 'n menslike fee -peetmoeder aangeneem. Onmiddellik na 'n geboorte het die sjamaan-vroedvrou die naelstring gesny en die pasgebore baba met soutwater en vuur gesuiwer. Enige (slegs vroulike) getuies van die geboorte kon slegs teenwoordig wees as hulle eers ritueel deur die vroedvrou met vuur en water gesuiwer is. Gedurende die eerste paar weke van 'n baba se lewe was dit baie belangrik dat die regte rituele uitgevoer is om die kind te beskerm totdat sy gees in die materiële wêreld ten volle gevestig is. As hulle nie behoorlik uitgevoer word nie, kan die baba se gees terugkeer vanwaar dit gekom het. Hierdie noodsaaklike rituele was die verantwoordelikheid van die sjamaan-vroedvrou en haar assistente.
'N Ander soort sjamanistiese geneser was 'n beensetter wat geestelike leiers opgeroep het om hulle te help met hul genesingswerk. Hulle herstel hoofsaaklik gebreekte en ontwrigte bene en geskeurde ligamente, genees rugpyn wat veroorsaak word deur ruggraatbeserings of siektes en ook velinfeksies soos kook, uitslag, psoriase en ekseem. These gifts were inherited from the paternal side of the family and, because the bones of the human body were considered to be spiritually ‘masculine’ in nature, these shamanic bone-setters were always male.
Most of the shamans worked with what modern New Agers call animal allies or spirit-helpers in animal form. These entities assisted them with their magical work and also taught them. For instance, the shaman-midwives described above worked with an animal spirit in the form of a mountain fox. The first bone-setter is supposed to have been taught his skills by a snake so that creature was sacred to the clan. Other shamanic practitioners were assisted by reindeer or wolves for attacking and destroying evil spirits, and ravens for getting rid of diseases. Other important animal spirit helpers included owls, wild ducks, geese, squirrels, bears, frogs and toads, dogs, seagulls and eagles.
One of the most important and respected types of magical practitioners was the shaman-smith. In all cultures all over the world from Europe to Africa the smith took a central role in tribal society and was regarded as a powerful magician or sorcerer because of his mastery over fire and skill in working with metal. There are many legends about blacksmiths making pacts with demons, gods or the Devil or tricking and outwitting them to acquire their skills. There are also many smith gods in ancient mythology who were magicians, made weapons for the Gods or acted as cultural exemplars by inventing agricultural tools. In Siberia the shaman-smiths made and magically consecrated the ritual metal objects used by other shamans. They were only chosen by the spirits and instead of a drum they used their anvils to communicate with the spiritual realm.
Who Were the First Artists?
As time passed by, researchers started to ask more and more questions about the first women and their role in their groups. This is related to the search for the artists of famous cave paintings. Archaeologist Dean Snow of Pennsylvania State University started his research with traveling to several cave sites in Spain and France and analyzing the pictures there. He focused on eight caves where the paintings are still well preserved. By comparing the relative lengths of human fingers, the researcher was able to determine that three-quarters of the handprints were made by women.
Hands at the Cuevas de las Manos upon Río Pinturas, near the town of Perito Moreno in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. Picture taken by in 2005. ( Mariano/CC BY SA 3.0 )
Dean Snow, whose research was supported by the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration, explained to National Geographic:
“There has been a male bias in the literature for a long time. People have made a lot of unwarranted assumptions about who made these things, and why. In most hunter-gatherer societies, it's men that do the killing. But it's often the women who haul the meat back to camp, and women are as concerned with the productivity of the hunt as the men are. It wasn't just a bunch of guys out there chasing bison around.”
This suggests that many researchers concluded that the paintings’ artists were men because the works show images of animals and hunters. However, they also had handprints left by the artists. Snow’s work proved that the differences in the lengths of the fingers on these handprints was related to gender and there were more women than men making the art. This was known because men and women have different lengths of fingers: women tend to have ring and index fingers of about the same length, whereas men's ring fingers tend to be longer than their index fingers.
The study by Snow isn't the first one in this field. A decade ago, John Manning, a biologist from the UK, had the same idea. He also reported that men and women have different finger lengths. Inspired by Manning, Snow started his research related to the cave people.
He examined the handprints discovered in the caves of Borneo, Argentina, and also many places in Africa and Australia. Moreover, he explored the famous paintings from caves in southern France and northern Spain. His study includes a total measurement of 32 stencils, including 16 from the cave of El Castillo in Spain, 6 from the caves of Gargas in France, and 5 from Pech Merle.
Prehistoric cave painting showing hands at Petta-kere, South Sulawesi. ( Sanjay P. K./CC BY NC ND 2. 0)
Apart from this, researchers have used the measurements of modern hands, which confirmed the differences between men and women. As a result, researchers were able to create an algorithm which could predict whether the handprint was male or female. According to Snow, more than 60% of the people who created the paintings in the caves must have been women. The hands of the prehistoric artists had measurements characteristic to women, not men. This is an important discovery which changes many things we know about women from this period. It seems that they had a bigger role in society than what was believed before.
The greatest skeptics of this theory say that the handprints belonged to boys and not women, but according to anatomists that is impossible.
“Cro-Magnon artists painting in Font-de-Gaume,” By Charles Robert Knight. ( Publieke domein ) New research suggests that this idea of men being the primary artists in early cave paintings is incorrect.
However, with this knowledge new questions arise: who were the female artists who lived in the caves? Who was chosen or allowed to do the paintings? Were they shamans or priestesses of forgotten cults?
A final question is related to another topic: were they Homo sapiens or Neanderthals? It is impossible to solve this question with just handprints.
Bradshaw rock paintings in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, taken at a site off Kalumburu Road near the King Edward River. These paintings are estimated to be between 26,500 and 20,000 years old. ( CC BY SA 2.0 )
Reconnecting with Your Intuition
If you are a person who represses your intuition because of previous painful experiences, there are ways you can reconnect.
Create a Forgiveness Pledge
Take out a piece , index card, or create an entry in your Intuition Journal. Fill in the sentence below. When you are done, find somewhere you can be alone and read it out loud to your intuition. If more memories and thoughts become present, include them in your Forgiveness Pledge.
Ek forgive myself for all the ways known and unknown that I have not interacted with my intuition and wisdom in a healthy and helpful way. With this statement, I pledge myself to learning from intuition and begin my healing today.
Visualize Reconnecting
Life brings us many opportunities to begin relationships with ourselves and others again. We all have relationship histories that can bring up memories of disappointment, hurt, and/or guilt. None-the-less, if we have been separated from a loved one for a period of time, these memories fade in importance when we have the opportunity to reconnect at a new and potentially more authentic and profound level.
To begin this exercise, remember a time when you were at the airport either waiting for someone yourself or watching someone else who is obviously waiting to be reconnected with a loved one. Play back in your mind the joy, hugs, and welcome expressed by both parties when they see each other.
Breathe deeply, counting 1 on the inhale and 2 on the exhale. Let all other thoughts in your mind go and focus on the breath and simple counting. Asem natuurlik.
When you are relaxed and centered, imagine you are at the airport waiting for a loved one: your intuition.
Experience how excited your body and spirit are to weet that this reconnection with your wise, intuitive self will open a new life for you. Let any known and unknown knowledge wounds you may be holding melt away in the light of your delight.
Let intuition take any form that is natural a male or female, young or old, someone you know, a perfect stranger, an animal, an object someone has shipped to you. Using your imagination, see, feel, hear and fully sense the wonderful, mutual celebration you and your intuition experience when you greet each other with joy. All residues of past problems have melted away.
See yourself walking out the airport door, towards your life in partnership with your intuition. There is no need to look back.
Write a Companion Love Letter
Using an intuition journal or other journal, write a direct and simple love letter to your intuition. Invite your intuition to be your companion in life÷to guide you, to inspire you, to identify your purposes, to make you laugh, to increase your sense of belonging, to reveal connections, to help your grow as a person, and anything else that you would like to develop or experience inside yourself.
Think deeply about what it is you want to pledge to your intuition and then write about it. Have you created an equal partnership? If there is anything you need to add or subtract now or in the future, change your letter and pledge as needed.
Keep this record and look back in 6 months and see what has changed. If you find this method for reconnecting satisfying, repeat it every year.
Author Sharon Franquemont © 2006 Life Science Foundation, used with permission.
Using intuition for health and wellbeing
Learn how to love and listen to yourself with these intuition exercises
5 Hunter-Gatherers Lived a Life of Hard Labor and Near-Starvation
Imagine that you live in an alternate reality where the concept of agriculture doesn't exist. You're feeling slightly peckish, so you walk up to the fridge to get that delicious taco you were planning to reheat for lunch. Except that there is no taco. In fact, there is no fridge. All of that "food cultivated by others so you can eat it" stuff was brought on by agriculture, which you now have no concept of. You're a hunter-gatherer: What you have is a spear, and your lunch is somewhere in that forest to your left. Bon appetit!
Yes, at the hunter-gatherer stage of human history, getting groceries sucked giant mammoth balls. You were forced to eat what you could find and/or kill, which led to an unholy amount of dangerous work, not to mention relatively poor nutrition and health. Meanwhile, the tribes that had figured out how to grow their own food were thriving and living large until everyone finally started doing it their way.
We're not debating the merits of agriculture: It's what enabled humans to settle down, and by extension it's the sole reason you're able to sit in a roofed building reading this article. Still, there is some evidence that prehistoric people actually had a great time being hunter-gatherers. Their "meat and vegetables" diet was in fact very varied and healthy, and obtaining food was no biggie: Tribes living the hunter-gatherer lifestyle today only "work" around 14 hours a week. Compare this to the back-breaking labor of keeping livestock and making things grow, and you'll see why no prehistoric person in their right mind would have voluntarily touched a plow.
Some theories indicate that farming was, in fact, invented out of desperation. The lax schedule of prehistoric hunter-gatherers left them plenty of time to sit around and bone, which in turn led to an expanding population and not enough game to feed them all. Boom! Agriculture or death by starvation, baby!
The first farmers soon found out that although agriculture did provide food, manual labor was far more grueling than the relatively bohemian lifestyle hunter-gatherers enjoyed back when food was abundant. This showed in their build: Compared to the big, meat-fed hunter types, agricultural people were a small and bony folk. It wasn't just because of all the hard work, either: Early farmed food was the kind of muck Taco Bell would hesitate to offer its customers, since early herders had no goddamned idea what they were doing in terms of breeding. This, combined with the fact that livestock lived practically under the same roof as their human owners, led to a number of animal diseases becoming more prevalent and figuring out how to jump from animals to people.
The food the farmers were growing wasn't much better: The sugary grains agricultural societies fed on started decaying their teeth.
Incidentally, the dawn of farming also messed up our relationship with our fellow man: It marked the start of social inequality. Tribal hunter-gatherers had to work together in order to obtain food, so they were all more or less equal. This egalitarian attitude went right down the toilet the second one farmer had enough surplus crop to hire others to do the bullshit manual labor for him. As this trend continued and societies evolved into larger and larger groups, these boss/subordinate roles escalated to the point where we suddenly had kings and slaves.
Related: 6 Historical Tragedies That Were Way Worse Than You Thought
4. Souls
Shamanism embodies the concept of animisme - the belief that spirits are everywhere, indwelling not only all animals, but objects too5. Shamans are tribal spiritual leaders who are believed to be skilled in harnessing animal spirits as allies in order to look after the local community6,7 and to be able to act as "mediator between the human world and the world of the spirits"48. Of particular importance are animal spirits, and ancestor spirits. All spirits inhabit a world where they can freely talk to each other in the same language the local shaman also happens to speak.
A feature of Native American shamanism is the concept of people losing their souls as a result of an antagonistic sorcerer or as a result of illness, "meaning that the psyche, or an element of it, is no longer integrated with the entire being, and the shaman must search for it in the psychic realms and bring it back"49. Many today detect in this the signs of myth-making done in order to explain away the strange effects on the personality that some illnesses and neurological problems can cause. In a pre-scientific world of animistic belief, spiritual warfare was a combination of psychodrama conducted by the shaman simply because it was what was expected of him, and of good old fashion titillating story telling, but, stories which may well have been genuinely believed in by many.
Spiritualists, psychics and mediums today all report a completely different spiritual world - one awash almost exclusively with the spirits of fellow humans. Shamans were thoroughly convincing and entire culture's embraced their outlook, saw the evidence of the work, and understood the truths of their proclamations about the spirits, their description of their many animal guardian angels and so on. So why is there such a difference between how enthusiasts see the spirit world today? This is a difficult question to answer without coming to the conclusion that several cultures must have it completely wrong, and that their heart-felt and cherished beliefs are, generally speaking, mostly wrong.
Humans Lived in North America 130,000 Years Ago, Study Claims
Prehistoric humans — perhaps Neanderthals or another lost species — occupied what is now California some 130,000 years ago, a team of scientists reported on Wednesday.
The bold and fiercely disputed claim, published in the journal Nature, is based on a study of mastodon bones discovered near San Diego. If the scientists are right, they would significantly alter our understanding of how humans spread around the planet.
The earliest widely accepted evidence of people in the Americas is less than 15,000 years old. Genetic studies strongly support the idea that those people were the ancestors of living Native Americans, arriving in North America from Asia.
If humans actually were in North America over 100,000 years earlier, they may not be related to any living group of people. Modern humans probably did not expand out of Africa until 50,000 to 80,000 years ago, recent genetic studies have shown.
If California’s first settlers weren’t modern, then they would have to have been Neanderthals or perhaps members of another extinct human lineage.
“It poses all sorts of questions,” said Thomas A. Deméré, a paleontologist at the San Diego Natural History Museum and a co-author of the new study. “Who were these people? What species were they?”
Some experts were intrigued by the research, but many archaeologists strongly criticized it, saying the evidence didn’t come close to supporting such a profound conclusion.
“I was astonished, not because it is so good but because it is so bad,” said Donald K. Grayson, an archaeologist at the University of Washington, who faulted the new study for failing to rule out more mundane explanations for markings on the bones.
In 1992, construction workers dug up the mastodon bones while clearing earth to build a sound barrier along Route 54 in San Diego County. A team of paleontologists from the museum spent the next five months excavating the layer of sediment in which they were found.
The team discovered more scattered bone fragments, all of which seemed to have come from a single mastodon. From the start, the remains seemed unusual.
The thick bones were broken and smashed, and near the animal were five large rounded stones. Dr. Deméré and his colleagues invited other experts to help determine how the bones were broken apart.
In an effort to reproduce the markings, the researchers used similar rocks to break apart fresh elephant bones in Tanzania. The bones fractured at the same angles as the ones in San Diego, they found, and the fragments scattered onto the ground in a similar pattern.
Dr. Deméré and his colleagues rejected the idea that all these changes could be the work of predators attacking the mastodon. “It’s kind of hard to envision a carnivore strong enough to break a mastodon leg bone,” he said.
When he and his colleagues closely examined the rocks found near the mastodon fossils, they also found scratch marks. Similar marks appeared on the rocks used to smash elephant bones. Small chips at the site fit neatly into the rocks, suggesting that they had broken off while people used them as hammers.
The bones and rocks rested on a sandy flood plain by a meandering stream. The researchers argued that these couldn’t have been brought together by a violent current, and that people must have carried the rocks to the mastodon.
Dr. Deméré speculated that the humans might have been trying to get marrow out of the mastodon bones to eat, while using fragments of the bones to fashion tools. There’s a great deal of evidence for that kind of activity at older sites in other parts of the world, he noted.
Rolfe D. Mandel, a geoarchaeologist at the University of Kansas who was not involved in the study, found it hard to see how the rocks and bones could come together without the help of people. “It could not happen naturally,” he said.
But other archaeologists said the bone fractures and rock scratches were unconvincing.
“They present evidence that the broken stones and bones could have been broken by humans,” said Vance T. Holliday, an archaeologist at the University of Arizona. “But they don’t demonstrate that they could only be broken by humans.”
Gary Haynes, an archaeologist at the University of Nevada, Reno, said the researchers should have ruled out more alternatives. Some of the bone fractures could have been caused by pressure from overlying sediment, he suggested.
For years, Dr. Deméré and his colleagues struggled to figure out how long ago the mastodon died. The scientists finally contacted James B. Paces, a research geologist at the United States Geological Survey, who determined how much uranium in the bones had broken down into another element, thorium.
That test revealed, to their surprise, that the bones were 130,000 years old. Yet the fractures suggested the bones were still fresh when they were broken with the rocks.
Other researchers agreed that the dating methods, at least, were sound. “These results look about as good as it can get,” said Alistair W. Pike, a geochronology expert at the University of Southampton who was not involved in the new study.
If early humans really did smash those mastodon bones 130,000 years ago, scientists will have to rethink how humans came to the Americas.
For decades, archaeologists have searched North and South America for the oldest evidence of occupation. Last year, Canadian researchers reported that bones of caribou and other mammals found in the Yukon with cut marks, which they argue were man-made, date back 24,000 years.
Michael R. Waters, an archaeologist at Texas A&M University, and his colleagues reported that a stone knife and mastodon bones with cut marks found in a Florida sinkhole are about 14,500 years old.
Taken together, the findings fit what is called the Beringian Standstill hypothesis: Humans moved from Siberia onto the Bering Land Bridge linking Asia and North America about 25,000 years ago, the idea goes, but were stopped by enormous glaciers.
After several thousand years, as glaciers receded, modern humans were able to move south.
But the mastodon bones in San Diego are vastly older than any others said to show evidence of human manipulation — so old that they may not represent the work of our own species.
The oldest fossils of anatomically modern humans, found in Africa, date back about 200,000 years. The ancestors of Europeans, Asians, and Australians did not expand out of Africa until somewhere between 50,000 and 80,000 years ago, according to recent studies.
But other kinds of humans might have made the journey to North America much earlier. The ancestors of Neanderthals, for example, were outside of Africa several hundred thousand years ago, and their descendants occupied a range stretching from Spain to southern Siberia.
Another mysterious lineage of humans, the Denisovans, split off from Neanderthals an estimated 400,000 years ago. Their remains have been found in Siberia.
Dr. Deméré and his colleagues say only that their findings “confirm the presence of an unidentified species of Homo,” a reference to the human genus.
To Beth Shapiro, a paleogeneticist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, the idea that Denisovans or Neanderthals could have made the trek from Asia to North America is plausible.
Last month, she and her colleagues published a study showing that bison spread into North America over the Bering Land Bridge about 135,000 years ago. (The bridge has disappeared and reappeared over the millenniums as the climate changed.)
“There is no reason to suspect that a human group could not have done the same,” Dr. Shapiro said. While they might be able to make the journey, however, she agreed with critics that were good reasons to be skeptical they actually did.
“Extraordinary claims require unequivocal evidence,” Dr. Waters of Texas A&M said. Unlike the stone knife he and his colleagues found in Florida, the stones at the San Diego site are not indisputably human tools.
“Some people are just going to say it’s impossible and turn away,” Dr. Deméré acknowledged, adding that he hoped that other archaeologists would take a close look at the evidence in San Diego for themselves.
“We could be wrong,” he added. “But people have to be open to the possibility that humans were here this long ago.”
1 Vocabulary
Because of the millenia gap between us and our prehistoric ancestors, it is only safe to assume that there would be an insurmountable language barrier between us. After all, many of us believe that early humans only spoke in grunts. The idea that they didn&rsquot have a well-structured language is common among us and is even popularly portrayed in films and TV commercials. One thing many of us are sure of&mdashif our ancestors spoke to us today, we wouldn&rsquot understand a single thing they said.
Amazingly, that might not be accurate, as researchers from both the UK and New Zealand have discovered. Some of our most fundamental words date back to the Mesolithic period, 15,000 years ago. It&rsquos theorized that some of the words used today, for concepts like &ldquohand&rdquo and &ldquofish,&rdquo are strikingly similar to the words prehistoric people used.
These words, called &ldquocognates,&rdquo sound the same and mean the same across many different cultures and have persevered through millennia, only experiencing slight alteration.
You can listen to some of these words being spoken here.
Asher B is currently in grad school to become a cognitive psychologist. In his spare time, he watches lots of sitcoms and eats lots of ramen.
