Ur-religion, humanities first religion, is a concept many believe is inaccessible to modern man. However, scientists continue to study the Upper Palaeolithic era in an effort to understand, however vaguely, our roots in religion. Due to a lack of living consultation and a large body of evidence, Clottes and Williams are able to overcome some, but not all of the major epistemological skepticism towards studying this period. We can be sure that prehistory hominids had a rich diversity in the way they supposedly interact with each other, the world around them and the spirit realm. The universal trait that seems to unite them is their leap in thought towards semantic construction. For whatever reason, as we can’t say for sure without evidence, Homo sapiens began to grasp at a larger sense of being, of explanation and influence in the world around them.
The article does make an effort to approach the concept from multiple perspectives of the natural sciences rather than the social. It is too often, the article claims, that we apply too much of our own understanding of the world to studying early humans. For example our understanding of the cave paintings at Lascaux--Scientists theorized that these painting were representations of the outside world to early man. We now theorize that they are representations of the cosmos, as complex a religious understanding of the world not unlike our modern religions in nature.
Religion is a way many cultures are able to keep their traditions as well as a link with ancestry throughout their cultural history. Ur-religion may be a concept scientists seek for reasons of explaining religion, but it is also out of a sense of desire to understand where we came from. In many ways, searching for Ur-religion is like reestablishing a link between modern man and prehistory Homo sapiens. Just like early man sought to understand his cosmos through his religion, we seek to understand him through this very same religion.
Sort of similar to the concept of ur-religion is how consistent religions are today. Many of us on Earth have very similar values, with how we bury our dead, believe in a higher power, the moral treatment of others, etc. It is interesting how much intolerance is created in relation to how few discrepancies there really are, especially between the Europeans and the so brutally judged Native Americans.
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