Over time, this focus strengthened the mind's ability to connect symbols and meanings...
Posted on 07/25/2008 7:52:16 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
A couple hundred-thousand years ago -- sometime after our hominid ancestors had controlled fire, but long before they were telling ghost stories -- early humans huddled around campfires to meditate and partake in shamanistic rituals. Today, when we slow down for a yellow light, recognize a dollar sign or do anything, really, that involves working memory, we have these ancient brainstorming sessions to thank. That's the somewhat controversial connection psychologist Matt J. Rossano is making. Ritualistic gatherings sharpened mental focus, he argues. Over time, this focus strengthened the mind's ability to connect symbols and meanings, eventually causing gene mutations that favored the enhanced memory we now possess... Eventually these connections led to complex forms of symbolism, which begin to show up in the archaeological record around 50,000 years ago. Archaeologists have found cave paintings from this time that display sophisticated symbolism, such as a lion-headed man that presumably infers some personality trait.
(Excerpt) Read more at smithsonianmag.com ...
The Neandertal EnigmaFrayer's own reading of the record reveals a number of overlooked traits that clearly and specifically link the Neandertals to the Cro-Magnons. One such trait is the shape of the opening of the nerve canal in the lower jaw, a spot where dentists often give a pain-blocking injection. In many Neandertal, the upper portion of the opening is covered by a broad bony ridge, a curious feature also carried by a significant number of Cro-Magnons. But none of the alleged 'ancestors of us all' fossils from Africa have it, and it is extremely rare in modern people outside Europe." [pp 126-127]
by James Shreeve
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Parents meditate, grow parts of their brains, and pass on the improvements to their children? Sounds like Lamarckism to me.
‘Perception’ gene tracked humanity’s evolution, scientists say
Eurekalert | 14-Nov-2005 | David Bricker
Posted on 11/15/2005 8:25:44 AM PST by balrog666
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1522448/posts
‘Perception’ gene tracked humanity’s evolution, scientists say
EurekAlert (AAAS) | 14 November 2005 | David Bricker and Matthew Hahn
Posted on 11/15/2005 8:35:27 AM PST by PatrickHenry
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1522454/posts
Pass the smores.
I think the author means that rituals involving meditation and trance gave rise to enhanced memory skills, which, in turn, altered the routines of early man in a way that made the use of the ability to understand symbols. Once such behavior became established, however it did, those offspring that excelled in symbol recognition were favored by natural selection.
> Ritualistic gatherings sharpened mental focus, he argues. Over time, this focus strengthened the mind’s ability to connect symbols and meanings, eventually causing gene mutations that favored the enhanced memory we now possess
Mediation causing germline mutations?
Just a thought.
That theory should be run through a *battery* of tests. /rimshot
Between people lighting their farts on the flames, kids giggling when they char-broil animal feces on a stick, and prehistoric stand-up comics working the first “night clubs”, I don’t think anyone had time to “meditate”. ;’)
Just the opposite I would say. Sitting and gazing into the campfire opened the space in the mind to let go of symbols. That is how formal meditation works. Although many types of meditation use objects or visualized objects, some very complex, to focus on it is the same object with sustained attention over and over again. The ultimate result of that technique is to break the habit of seeing things conceptually. IOWs as symbols instead of just as they are.
Excellent.
Yes. Lysenko lives!
He also equates exercising focused attention with increasing memory. I don't know enough about the brain to know if the same part of the brain handles both functions but I do know enough about meditation to know that it isn't about straining to remember or to cognize symbolic relationships. So he may be onto something but I'm confused by his way of putting it at the least.
Finally, I think your description of the campfire scene is hammer, nail, head. There ain't no good meditatin' with caverats running around screaming and cavehos grousing about the day's catch or provocatively lifting their wooly mammoth pelts. Or cavebros bragging about their atlatl heft.
The Neanderthals refused to sing “Kumbaya,” and it was their undoing.
Did this fellow study under that great agronomist, Trofim Lysenko?
camp fires—>mediation—>genetic mutations
Sounds good, I’m sold! Put it in the next set of textbooks, ASAP!
Mel Brooks was on to something?
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