Name:

World Religions
Phil 337-450
Module 3 Quiz
Prehistoric Religion

1. Discuss why each of these archaeological findings are indicative of prehistoric religion:

a. Ritual cannibalism: traces of blows on the skulls, the broken arm and leg bones and the
evidence of decapitation and preservation of skulls have been regarded by some as the
earliest evidence of ritual treatment of the dead. These ritual weren’t done out of hunger.
They were ritual for magical implications. Because of that, these activities are related to
ritual cannibalism.
b. Systematic burials: Neanderthal man often carefully and deliberately buried their dead.
Neanderthal burials often included the careful placement of tools and animal bones
indicating that the bodies of the corpse may have received ritual treatment. Some
interpreters felt that these animal bones were food offering to dead in the next world.
Simply, they believed in afterlife.
c. Application of Red Ochre: coloring of bones with red ochre gave a rise to a few
speculations. But one of the theories held that Paleolithic man had no knowledge about
the permanency and irreversibility of death. The reason why they painted red color on the
corpse was because red represents the color of blood and the life-giving fluid, and they
expect that dead bodies would return to life with red ochre painted. In addition, they
believed that coloring the bone was meant to aid and prepare the dead for another realm
of existence.
d. Prehistoric Venuses: are fertility charms in addition to art and sculpture. The main
objective of these art objects were promotion and conservation of life in and through
outward signs of female fecundity. One of the theory stated that prehistoric Venuses
could be used for homeopathic magic.
e. Cave paintings: was a form of sympathetic magic designed to insure the success of the
hunt and thus the continuance of the food supply. Cave paintings were supported by the
Shamans in the Magdalenian period in an attempt prove that it had magical and religious
implications with a strong absence of human figures.
f. Stone megaliths: are monuments of huge, rough stones erected over burial chambers or
forming part of them. One speculation is that stone Stonehenge was a place of ritual and
worship, where man established contact with the supernatural powers in which they
believed. Also, stone megaliths may well correspond with different religious beliefs held
by the various colonist groups arriving from the continent, there would be some way
connected with the dead from the early phases the rite conducted.
2. Discuss the significance of the Homo erectus site at Chou Kou Tien.
Answer: Homo erectus at Chou Kou Tien shows evidence of the use and control of fire in about
500,000 years ago. When Tools were intentionally made for future use that proves the
individuals who made them must have ability to forming mental images of the ends to which
these tools were to be used. Deliberate and systematic tool making was one of the criteria used to
decide if a fossil form is human and belongs to the Hominidae. Even these physiological criteria
also plays a role in it.

3. What is the current thinking about the meaning of the megalithic site called Stonehenge?
Answer: R.J.C Atkinson states that Stonehenge was not the product of a single period or of a
single civilization. He distinguishes three building phases: Stonehenge I, II and III. According to
Atkinson, the Druidism had existed only a few centuries B.C ago but there was possibility that
human sacrifice might have been offered or some propitiatory ritual. The one general agreement
is that Stonehenge was a place of ritual and worship where men contacted with supernatural
power in which they believed. It was also used as the holding of political councils or the
dispensing of the justice.

4. What religious practice was used by Homo sapiens neanderthalensis (Neanderthal man)
probably for the first time?
Answer: The religious practice which was used by the Homo sapiens was burial whom were
placed in a certain position. They were buried with various grave goods, jewelry and ornaments
which were the symbol that the Neanderthal man had thought of the dead and the reason to
transcend for afterlife.

5. Explain three theories that have been used to explain the meaning of prehistoric Venuses.
Answer: The first theory is one from prehistoric religion which is the prehistoric Venuses is a
fertility charms and the main function of Venuses is to be the promotions and preservationist of
life. The second theory is that these statues are characteristic product of unregenerate male
imagination. These statues may have been pre-occupied with sex. It is Pornographic and were
about sex, sexism, and sexuality as well. The third theory is homeopathic magic.