{"product_id":"how-religion-evolved-9781412862868","title":"How Religion Evolved","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhy did many religious leadersMoses, Old Testament prophets, Zoroasterclaim they heard divine voices? Why do ancient civilizations exhibit key similarities, e.g., the living dead (treating the dead as if they were still alive); speaking idols (care and feeding of effigies); monumental mortuary architecture and houses of gods (pyramids, ziggurats, temples)? How do we explain strange behaviour such as spirit possession, speaking in tongues, channelling, hypnosis, and schizophrenic hallucinations? Are these lingering vestiges of an older mentality?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBrian J. McVeigh answers these riddles by updating bicameralism. First proposed by the psychologist Julian Jaynes, this theory postulates that an earlier mentality existed: a human (the brain''s left hemisphere) heard voices of gods or ancestors (the brain''s right hemisphere). Therefore, ancient religious texts reporting divine voices were recounting of audio-visual hallucinationsa method of social control when early populations expan\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eContents\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eForeword by Marcel Kuijsten\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgments\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePrologue: Chasing Ghosts in Tokyo\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePart I: The World According to the Gods\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1 The Failure of Science to Explain Religion\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e2 Why the Gods Began to Speak\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e3 Divine Voices and Visions as Social Adaptation\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePart II: When the Gods Spoke and Walked among Us\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e4 The Living Dead: Explaining Entombment and Ancestor Worship\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e5 Towns as the Domain of the Gods\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e6 Temples as Relay Stations: Transmitting Divine Commands\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e7 Talking Idols: Tools of Divine Control\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e8 Mortuary Monuments: How the Gods Awed Their Followers\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e9 Heavenly Ambassadors: God–Kings and Sacred Rulers\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e10 Ancient Civilizations as God-Governed\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e11 Mesoamerica: Theocentric Civilizations of the New World\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e12 Trimming the Theological Tree: Monotheism as Adaptation\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e13 Angels, Divine Messengers, and Swarms of Demons\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePart III: When the Gods Fell Silent\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e14 Prayers, Possessions, and Prophecies: Conjuring Up the Missing Gods\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e15 The Gods Depart: The Late-Bronze-Period Dark Ages\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e16 A Change of Mind in the Ancient World\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e17 The Axial Age: The World Reborn without Gods\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e18 Imagining the Transcendent: A New Cognitive Ability\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e19 Introcosm: A New World of Space and Time\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e20 The Self Replaces the Gods\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e21 From Revelation to Reasoning\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e22 When the Gods Still Whisper: Strange Behaviors Explained\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEpilogue: Science and Politics as Neo-Religion\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAppendices and Supplementary Charts\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA How to Chase Ghosts\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eB Explaining Religion versus Explaining Religion Away\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eC Gods on the Brain: Neurotheology\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eD The Problem with \"Cultural Evolution\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eE Six Hypotheses of Jaynesian Psychology\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eF The Limitations of Evolutionary Psychology\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eG Prehistoric and Historic Mentalities in Perspective\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eH Predictable Objections, Rebuttals, and Qualifications\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI Verification and Applications of Jaynes's Theories\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJ Primitive Psychopolitics and Neurocultural Adaptation\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eK A History of Mentalities\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eL Population Size of Ancient Towns and Cities\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eM Dreams: A Form of Conscious Interiority\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eN Pre-Axial and Axial Ages Compared\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eO Solving the Mystery of Hallucinations\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eP Autoscopy: Seeing One's Double\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eQ What the Gods Can Teach Us: A New Understanding of the Mind\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTimelines of Mentalities\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eExplanation\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1 Three Major Shifts in Human Mentality\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e2 Prehistoric Mentalities\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e3 Middle East\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e4 Africa\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e5 Europe\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e6 South Asia\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e7 East Asia\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e8 Southeast Asia\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e9 Oceania\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e10 North America\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e11 South America\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e12 Mesoamerica\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGlossary\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReferences\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIndex\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Taylor \u0026 Francis Inc","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51019813585239,"sku":"9781412862868","price":121.5,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781412862868.jpg?v=1750781342","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/how-religion-evolved-9781412862868","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}