Chapter 08. Rituals
Rituals are as old as human society. The earliest known cave paintings date back some 32,000 years and were found in Chauvet, France. These highly sophisticated paintings of animals are thought to have served a ritual purpose—by coming together to create and later view the paintings, the tribe was reminded of their special relationship with the animals they hunted and to one another.
Recent evidence shows that rituals might even predate Homo Sapiens. The Neanderthals, our sentient cousins, are known to have had rituals of their own. They buried their dead and made art—a 35,000 year-old artifact fashioned by Neanderthals was discovered in 2003. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it is a crude mask, a rough Neanderthal face.
Our propensity ...
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