HIST311 Final Assignment

Burak Böke (2496750)

Lecturer Prof. Evangelia Pişkin

January 4, 2025
 As my first video, I've chosen "The Roots of Religion: Genevieve Von Petzinger at

TEDxVictoria" (2012) because it shows how we might be able to trace the earliest stages of

spiritual and religious thought back to our deep evolutionary past. This is in perfect harmony

with the main ideas of our lecture about prehistoric societies and interdisciplinary approaches.

Von Petzinger covers a number of important subjects in this presentation, including the

emergence of symbolic behavior, the evolution of cognitive abilities in early hominins, and the

archeological evidence of potential spiritual or religious rituals among our ancient ancestors. She

talks about the cognitive leap known as "enhanced working memory," which gave humans the

ability to envision abstract ideas, make plans for the future, and produce symbolic

representations like elaborate artwork on cave walls or the thoughtful positioning of grave goods

during funerals. Von Petzinger emphasizes the slow development of skills that ultimately led to

the behaviors we might refer to as "religious" or "spiritual" by contrasting the complex mental

processes of contemporary humans with the more basic tools and mental templates used by

earlier species like Homo habilis. What most interested me was her argument that some

archaeological findings—impossible entities like half-human, half-animal figurines, elaborate

burials full of thousands of painstakingly crafted beads, and indications of “hunting magic”

painted on cave walls—show how these early people were actively interacting with ideas of an

invisible world. Her discussion of shamans and the idea that caves may have been seen as

transitional portals between different realms is an example of how ancient art and ritual could be

both reflections and catalysts of social cohesion, identity, and collective belief systems. As a

sociology student, I am especially interested in how these findings speak to our innate desire to

give the world meaning beyond basic survival needs. This supports the sociological perspective

that religion and shared symbols play a fundamental role in unifying groups and shaping cultural
norms. This multidisciplinary approach, which weaves together neuropsychology, anthropology,

and archaeology, shows how we can create credible narratives of early human behavior and

societal complexity. In the end, Von Petzinger’s presentation not only expands our understanding

of the evolutionary roots of religion and spirituality but also serves as an example of how

scientific methods can illuminate even the most enigmatic features of our prehistoric past,

encouraging us to recognize the sophisticated lives and minds of those who came before us.

My second video, “Tool Use and Evolution: John Shea – Behavioral Modernity vs.

Complexity: What Stone Tools Teach Us” (2018), challenges the conventional understanding of

“behavioral modernity” and instead suggests a more dynamic, evidence-based framework for

comprehending early human behavior. John Shea challenges the conventional wisdom that there

is a fixed point in prehistory (roughly 40,000–50,000 years ago) when humans suddenly became

“modern” by creating complex tools, art, and symbolic thinking. Shea proposes that we look at

"behavioral complexity" rather than adopting the retroactive designation of particular artifacts or

activities as "proof" of modernity. This idea highlights how various factors (environmental,

cultural, and social) lead to various tool production and usage outcomes, creating a complex web

of technological variation over time and geography. By looking at stone tools, which Shea calls

the "indestructible evidence" of the connection between mind and technology, we can see that

Homo sapiens demonstrated complexity in toolmaking as early as 100,000–300,000 years ago,

refuting the idea that sophisticated behavior appeared suddenly. Shea illustrates how these early

humans probably engaged in many of the behaviors we consider "modern" by citing specific

instances, such as the 73,000-year-old abstract drawing found in Blombos Cave, South Africa.

They appear to have been innately able to adjust to their surroundings with ever-increasing

complexity and creativeness, rather than being "primitive" until a particular point. Shea's
comparison of the Salem witch trials and the flawed search for "behaviorally modern humans"

caught my attention the most because both situations end with a presumption—that someone

must be a witch or that "humans were once non-modern"—and a rush to align evidence with that

assumption rather than a methodical, hypothesis-driven investigation. I believe this aligns with

the social research cautionary principle against confirmation bias. When we attempt to validate a

theory by hand-picking data instead of allowing the data to inform theory. As a sociology

student, I believe that Shea's focus on "obligatory tool use" in humans and how cultural norms

may influence toolmaking techniques connects directly to sociology's fundamental concern in the

emergence, dissemination, and evolution of collective practices. Furthermore, his appeal for new

research questions into how tool dependence altered human cognition and if other hominins

possessed this characteristic serves as a reminder of how our knowledge of human origins is

always changing.

As my third video, I've chosen "Ice Age Cave Art: Unlocking the Mysteries Behind These

Markings | Nat Geo Live" (2016) because it takes us on a vivid tour of prehistoric cave art and

makes us consider how our Paleolithic ancestors used visual and symbolic communication. In

this talk, Genevieve Von Petzinger talks about her in-depth study of geometric symbols in Ice

Age cave paintings, emphasizing how these abstract symbols frequently outnumber the more

well-known representations of animals and people by a ratio of two to one or more. She

demonstrates that these "simple" shapes—circles, lines, dots, and more complex composite

figures—reflect complex patterns in space and time, making them anything but random

doodling. Von Petzinger uses digital upgrades to show how elusive images on cave walls,

concealed deep within tunnels up to a mile underground, reveal diverse sign repertoires and

clusters of repeating symbols that appear to follow cultural or regional boundaries. The thought
that these early humans made a tremendous effort—sometimes traveling huge distances in total

darkness—to leave marks that could have been anything from spiritual concepts to clan

identifiers to even crude attempts at communication is what instantly stands out. Her focus on

the social and cultural significance of symbolic behaviors among nonliterate societies, as well as

the more general question of why our ancestors dedicated so much time and effort to producing

art that transcends basic survival needs, is, in my opinion, the most persuasive argument in this

talk. Group identification, communal knowledge, and the passing down of cultural traditions are

all themes that are reflected by this focus on shared meaning-making. The idea that many so-

called "geometric" signs might actually show aspects of everyday life, natural landscapes, or

even celestial observations particularly appealed to me; it would imply that these Paleolithic

artists were bridging the gap between their symbolic representations and their lived

environments. It serves as a reminder that people have always been a highly creative and

expressive species that uses common narrative structures and imagery to create social ties. To

conclude, "Ice Age Cave Art" adds another perspective to our knowledge of how ancient

societies developed and structured themselves long before writing was invented by

demonstrating how Paleolithic communities used the rich symbolic expression that served as the

foundation for more sophisticated forms of social organization and communication.

I choose the article “The role of cult and feasting in the emergence of Neolithic

communities. New evidence from Göbekli Tepe, south-eastern Turkey” (Dietrich, Heun, Notroff,

Schmidt, & Zarnkow, 2012) because it thoroughly examines the ways in which extensive ritual

practices, such as feasting and perhaps beer brewing, could have accelerated up the shift from

hunter-gatherer societies to the earliest agricultural communities. Beginning with a thorough

explanation of Göbekli Tepe, an archaeological site distinguished by colossal T-shaped pillars

grouped in circular enclosures that probably functioned as meeting spots for prehistoric religious

rituals, the writers address a number of related topics. They explore the remarkable discoveries

of numerous animal bones that allude to large communal feasts and exquisitely carved animal

reliefs on these pillars. Furthermore, they offer strong evidence that fermented drinks, perhaps

beer, were made or consumed at this location, from enormous limestone basins to chemical

studies that suggest the presence of oxalates. It's possible that this kind of consumption served as

a social "glue," uniting disparate hunter-gatherer communities, establishing partnerships, and

promoting common cultural identities. They also relate this phenomenon to the growing

hypothesis that the initial experimentation and subsequent domestication of wild grain species—

thus opening the door to agricultural subsistence—may have been motivated by feasting-related

demands (e.g., the need for steady access to cereals for brewing or for large communal meals).

The authors' strong case that social rituals and cultic practices, rather than merely subsistence

concerns, may have been a major factor in the formation of prehistoric societies is what really

caught my interest and inspired me to select this article. The idea that ritual, feasting, and

collective work organization are examples of society-defining behaviors that can influence

human groups to adopt new lifestyles just as much as or perhaps more than economic or

ecological causes intrigues me. Additionally, the idea that beer and feasting may have served as

social catalysts aligns well with sociological theories of group identity formation, status

competition, and alliance formation, offering a striking example of how intangible cultural

components can support important historical shifts.

Lastly, the idea that species are not fixed and that human evolution happened in a

complicated, branching process rather than a straight, unavoidable road toward "perfection"

was the issue from our October 9 lecture that most interested me. Darwin's theory of natural
selection, which emphasizes how differences within a species can result in varying survival

benefits depending on the environment, was briefly discussed. Thinking about how

characteristics that may initially appear to be negative (such as blindness in fish that live in dark

caverns) might actually be beneficial or, at the very least, not harmful to survival in a given

habitat fascinated me. This viewpoint emphasizes how nature chooses features that are most

appropriate for certain environmental conditions rather than continuously "improving" organisms

along some ideal ladder of development. It challenges us to consider the various ways in which

early human communities interacted with their environment, adapted, and survived, particularly

in the years preceding the pivotal transitions from Paleolithic to Neolithic societies. This, in my

opinion, is persuasive because it casts doubt on the idea that human culture developed in a single,

linear fashion and instead emphasizes a mosaic of groups, some of which coexisted, mixed, and

even disappeared. It raises issues about how social, cultural, and environmental variables came

together to define our shared past, given that we, as Homo sapiens, were originally only one of

multiple hominin species. All things considered, the idea that natural selection is a flexible, non-

teleological process offers a useful perspective for comprehending not just the biological

development of humans but also the complex interactions between early prehistoric environment,

technology, and social structure.

 References

Dietrich, O., Heun, M., Notroff, J., Schmidt, K., & Zarnkow, M. (2012). The role of cult and

feasting in the emergence of neolithic communities. new evidence from Göbekli Tepe,

south-eastern Turkey. Antiquity, 86(333), 674–695.

https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003598x00047840

Petzinger, G. V. (2012). The Roots of Religion: Genevieve Von Petzinger at TEDxVictoria.

YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zgwz_m7sRs

Petzinger, G. V. (2016). Ice Age Cave Art: Unlocking the Mysteries Behind These Markings |

Nat Geo Live. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSF4zk2nsTU

Shea, J. (2018). Tool Use and Evolution:John Shea - Behavioral Modernity vs. Complexity:

What Stone Tools Teach Us. YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zw5KoDqK5H8