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Sure, religious beliefs in ancient time and today has not really change so much,
the only difference is probably that it is now a crime to do any kind of sacrificial rituals. But religion is still some kind of a guiding force in a societies just same as earlier. There are priest just like during the ancient times and followers join the rituals to worship their god.
only now religious activities are more organize and in a more comfortable atmosphere. Our religious ceremony today has just evolved from the ceremony in the ancient times. so we can somehow understand the past.
the only difference is probably that it is now a crime to do any kind of sacrificial rituals. But religion is still some kind of a guiding force in a societies just same as earlier. There are priest just like during the ancient times and followers join the rituals to worship their god.
only now religious activities are more organize and in a more comfortable atmosphere. Our religious ceremony today has just evolved from the ceremony in the ancient times. so we can somehow understand the past.
Paleoanthropology (the study of ancient humans) is a bit like paleontology (the study of ancient animals, like dinosaurs). In both cases, you take what evidence you can dig up, examine it in minute (excruciating) detail, and then take your best guesses.
If you're very lucky, you later get more information that confirms your guesses. If you're not so lucky, you later get more information that makes you revise your guesses. If you're VERY unlucky, you get no information whatsoever, and you're just left guessing.
In general, anthropologists speculate that when something served no apparent temporal purpose, it was often intended to have ceremonial or religious value. The real key is that "minute detail". No piece of evidence is too small to be ignored: the shape of a chipped rock, the pigments used on a piece of pottery, the species of flowers used in a grave site.
Religion often causes people to build large objects, larger than necessary. The Egyptians didn't need massive pyramids; the Mayan's didn't need long causeways; the pre-Druidical society that built Stonehenge didn't a giant... uh, henge. In each case, the pieces are often oriented with astronomical significance, and the astronomy does have a practical effect: it serves as a giant calendar. But you can do astronomy with much smaller rocks.
When you don't have a calendar, but you live and die by the planting season, the "priests" who read the sky possess crucial magic. They take on positions of tremendous importance, bridging what we think of as "religion" and "science".
Death rituals are also major clues. Death is scary, and that fear inspires ritual behavior. It conveniently leaves artifacts, because the objects associated with death are put away (in the ground, in mausoleums, etc) where they are safe from the weather. Modern religions also have death rituals, and we can compare theirs to ours.
There are myriad other clues. Some left writings or at least paintings. Some left oral histories, written down later. Some interacted with other civilizations, and we can compare and contrast.
It may not be accurate to say that we really "understand" the ancient religions, since we're seeing only a fraction of what we'd like to know. But we can make some very strong guesses, and those stories help us understand ourselves.
If you're very lucky, you later get more information that confirms your guesses. If you're not so lucky, you later get more information that makes you revise your guesses. If you're VERY unlucky, you get no information whatsoever, and you're just left guessing.
In general, anthropologists speculate that when something served no apparent temporal purpose, it was often intended to have ceremonial or religious value. The real key is that "minute detail". No piece of evidence is too small to be ignored: the shape of a chipped rock, the pigments used on a piece of pottery, the species of flowers used in a grave site.
Religion often causes people to build large objects, larger than necessary. The Egyptians didn't need massive pyramids; the Mayan's didn't need long causeways; the pre-Druidical society that built Stonehenge didn't a giant... uh, henge. In each case, the pieces are often oriented with astronomical significance, and the astronomy does have a practical effect: it serves as a giant calendar. But you can do astronomy with much smaller rocks.
When you don't have a calendar, but you live and die by the planting season, the "priests" who read the sky possess crucial magic. They take on positions of tremendous importance, bridging what we think of as "religion" and "science".
Death rituals are also major clues. Death is scary, and that fear inspires ritual behavior. It conveniently leaves artifacts, because the objects associated with death are put away (in the ground, in mausoleums, etc) where they are safe from the weather. Modern religions also have death rituals, and we can compare theirs to ours.
There are myriad other clues. Some left writings or at least paintings. Some left oral histories, written down later. Some interacted with other civilizations, and we can compare and contrast.
It may not be accurate to say that we really "understand" the ancient religions, since we're seeing only a fraction of what we'd like to know. But we can make some very strong guesses, and those stories help us understand ourselves.
You mean like - say for example - would it be possible to understand an ancient religion that believes that a monodeity built the world in six days and then populated it with one sterile imortal male and one sterile imortal female who get mortality and fertility as punishment for being tricked into eating an apple by a talking snake?
I see your point. It's hard to swallow a story like that without suspending, perhaps with the help of hypnosis, all knowlege learned and accumulated since the time when such religious beliefs were taken litteraly.
I see your point. It's hard to swallow a story like that without suspending, perhaps with the help of hypnosis, all knowlege learned and accumulated since the time when such religious beliefs were taken litteraly.
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