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Annemarie de Waal Malefijt, Religion and Culture
Questions on chapter 5, Prehistoric Religion
Note to students: Because this book was first written in 1968, much of the evolutionary
terminology and many of the archeological statements are now obsolete. There are some
insights, however, that remain valid. My questions are directed at those insights.
Know the meaning of the following terms
Mousterian
menhir
art mobilier
cromlech
home art vs. cave art
dolmen
palimpsest
tumulus
alignment
barrow
passage graves
hallcist
Know the country and relevance of the following archaeological sites.
Chou Kou Tien
Teshik-Tash
Cogul
Monte Circeo
Willendorf
Carnac and Menec
La Chapelle-aux-Saints
Brassempouy
Stonehenge
La Ferrassie
Trois Freres
Mugharet es-Skuhl
Altamira
Be able to answer the following questions
Certain 19th century writers claimed that some tribes were so “low in culture’ that they had no
religion. What was Tylor’s response? Tylor asserted his belief in the universality of _______.
The three periods into which anthropologists still divide cultural evolutionary history are ______,
______, and _______, each of which is defined by _________.
“Magical cannibalism” appears to have been practiced by ___________, who would today be
classified as Homo erectus. (The genus name given to this fossil back then was _________). The
religious nature of ritual cannibalism and head-hunting is attested to by ethnographic work
among the Jivaro and the Amahuacha of the ____________ continent
Neanderthals were traditionally associated with the _________ Paleolithic. The burial of an old
man with a broken nose was found at ___________, possible indication of ________. In the
______ regions of German and Austria there are indications that the Neanderthals gave ritual
attention to ______. In general evidence of possible Neanderthal religion is clearest in
archeological sites that had been used in the distant past for ______.
Aurignacian, Solutrean, and Magdalenian refer to __________ traditions found among people
who belong to the ______ Paleolithic. The term Cro-Magnon refers to a place in ______ where
railroad workers unearthed skeletons similar to those of modern humans in the year _______.
Besides the tools and food remains found in Neanderthal burials, Cro-Magnon skeletons are in
addition surrounded by _______ and painted with _______. The bodies were often protected
with ________. A Cro-Magnon burial in South Wales illustrates the animals hunted; along
with human remains there were remains of five animals, namely_____.
“The presence of animal bones, tools, and ornaments in burial sites indicates belief in the after
life.” What permits that inference? In addition to bones and tools with the dead, two other
practices in Cro-Magnon burials have provoked discussion. Which practices and objects?
The Venus figures at Laussel, in France, differed in genre from the typical Venus figurines.
How? An unsual carving of a female head in mammoth ivory was found in southwestern France,
in the town of ___________, A total of about _____ Venus figurines have been found in five
countries, namely__________. A very unusual type of painting practice was found in Font-deGaume in France. What was it?
The centers of Paleolithic cave art are the countries of _____ and _____. In the cave art the
artists paid great attention to depicting _________ but made crude drawings of ______. The
best executed drawing of a human is the one known as _______, found in the French cave of
_________.
According to Malefijt, the theory that the cave paintings of animals represent religious or magical
scenes is supported by seven features of the paintings, namely: _________
The caves of northern Spain, like Altamira, have art that is similar to that of southern France.
But in the cave of Cogul, further south, there is an unusual scene depicted. What is it?
In the lakes near Hamburg Germany an unusual ritual was found. Which? In Ofnet, in
Germany, a burial of many skulls was found. What was unusual about the site that leads us to
believe, on the basis of analogies with certain Native American groups, that there was a belief in
an afterlife.
What is the dominant characteristic of the Neolithic that distinguishes it from Paleolithic and
Mesolithic? How can we infer that agriculture was associated with population growth? Apart
from the food issue, denser populations increased the problem of ________, and this led to a
larger number of ________/
In Jericho the deepest and oldest layer contains skulls that were treated in a very special way.
What was the treatment? Some skulls of children were found. Something about them leads to
the hypothesis of child sacrifice. What?
Early Neolithic Egyptian burials indicate a new burial practice in human history. Which
practice? What is the most common burial object accompanying the corpse? It is in Egypt that
we first see social stratification. What objects did the graves of the wealthy have that the graves
of the poorer people did not have? Some wealthy graves had separate deeper storage rooms
connected to them. What was the possible function of these?
The earliest megalith burial monuments were found in four countries, namely. ______
custom then spread to Europe, particularly in three areas, namely, ______.
The
The introduction of metal signals the end of the __________.
The most famous megalith in Europe is ___________, located in Salisbury, England. It was built
in _____ phases, the earliest beginning about _______ B.C.E. During Stonehenge I there was
built a circular ______ and an inner ______. At the northeast is a monolith known as the _____
Stone. Along the rampart were 56 ritual pits known as ______ holes. Excavations reveal that
these were used for ______. Stonehenge II was initiated about _____ BCE and consists of a
double circle of 82 bluestones. Stonhenge III was initiated about _____ BCE and consists of a
circle of upright ______ stones covered with ______ that formed a continuous circle. The entire
structure ended up being concentric circles, at the center of which were five ________ each
consisting of two uprights topped by a stone slab.
Sensationalistic accounts have viewed Stonehenge as a temple of the ________ religion
characterized by rituals of __________. There is no direct evidence for human sacrifice at
Stonehenge, but there have been found the remains of a murdered child at the nearby sanctuary of
________.
The people who built Stonehenge II may have been members of a different culture who were
oriented toward sky worship. The opening of the circle of stones faced northeast and was close
to the point of sunrise at the _____________.
The bluestones at Stonehenge came from _______ miles away, and are smaller than the later
sarsen stones, which came from about _____ miles away.
There were many other megaliths built in northern Europe, but they differed in function from
Stonehenge. Stonehenge was primarily a _______, whereas the other megaliths functioned
principally as ______.
There were two types of Paleolithic and Neolithic burials in Europe : those in which bones were
____________ and those in which the body was _______. The former seemed to indicate a
belief that ________, whereas the latter seemed to indicate belief in a ______.
The sculpture traditions of the Paleolithic “Venus figurines” disappeared for millennia. In the
Neolithic sculpture reappeared. The most common object is a female figure commonly known as
____________. Like the Venus figurines the limbs and face are ignored, and emphasis is placed
on __________. Because of this emphasis it is believed that they were religious items focusing
on _______. In ________, these figurines became completely “stylized”, no longer recognizable
as females except for breasts. They were called ____________. One argument for their use as
fertility symbols derives from what they were NOT used for. These figurines are rarely found in
________.
The book briefly mentions New World burials and lists four cultures. You should know the
names, the location, the approximate final date of the culture, and the characteristic burial
practice.