Analysis Of Karen Armstrong's 'Homo Religiosus'

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More than forty-five thousand years ago, there have existed two types of bipedal humans, the Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, but only one has survived. The survivors were the humans who we are comprised out of and still breathing and living today the Homo sapiens. Some scientist say that the lack of imagination was the key factor to the Neanderthals demise, while the Homo sapiens with a broader imagination lived on. In Karen Armstrong’s essay “Homo religiosus” she describes her time in the caverns of Lascaux, while she explains the painting on the walls as part of the ancient civilization’s rituals. The painting tells us a story of their daily lives and the myths in which they believe in, that keeps them in a peace of mind. As there were many …show more content…

Myths were used to unite the people of the tribe, giving them a way of life, and a peace of mind. Armstrong states “The hunters feel profoundly uneasy about slaughtering the beasts, who are their friends and patrons, and to assuage them this anxiety, they surround the hunt with taboos and prohibitions. They say that long ago that animals made a covenant with humankind and now a god known as the Animal Master regularly sends flocks from the lower world to be killed on the hunting plains, because the hunters promised to perform the rites that will give them posthumous life” (Armstrong 4). Although the hunters feel uneasy and even fearful of killing their “friends”, they still follow through with it because of a myth telling them that the Animal Master will forgive them and even sent more beast for them to hunt if they follow a certain ritual before killing their prey. Without the ritual this type of action will become a simple murder without a reason, this action than hinders the mind psychologically and starts to deteriorate it, while treading the path of insanity. The myths and rituals allows these people to kill wild animals without conferring a mental breakdown by sugar coating their inhumane actions with meaning to the survival of the society. This type of myth allowed the ancient civilization to realize the undeniable truth of life where sacrifice is a necessity to the progression of another

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