Mesolithic Religions Essay

Prior to this time in human existence people did not physical exercise an organized form of religion. Everything was considered sacred and and there were no gods being worshiped. All this began to change in the Mesolithic time period. A shift in assimilation is evidenced by the building of the Stone Temple at Urfa.Up until this point in time, humans lived a mostly hunter gather lifestyle. tribe would sire followed the herds of animals and lived off the land as they came to it, moving on once the resources were exclusively used up. With the advent of the Stone Temple signaled a new musical mode of life. With people needing to eat while the temple was being built and later when they came to worship, humans began practicing farming, herding, and hunting. With these new roles humans had a shift in thought from mediocre passing through living on the land to masters of the land with the ability to own it and change it as needed. This new thought led to a shift in apparitional pract ices.Mesolithic people now began to see the world from the perspective that mankind had control over prosperity through religious practices. Herders could sacrifice around of the herd to a god to ensure the herd continued to grow. A farmer needing to have a good crop would have sacrificed people, fasted, or engaged in ritualistic sex. Much of this is evidenced by the artifacts that have been uncovered and the stories that have survived from the Mesolithic time.At the site of Urfa wild forms of the world-class domesticated plants and animals have been found. Inside the ruins animal bones were uncovered suggesting animal sacrifice may have taken place in there. The giant tilt pillars have carvings in them one being a woman in a sexual pose that may suggest a room for ritualistic sex. The write up of the first family illustrates some of the mentality of the time period. In the story two of the sons, representing farming and herding, gather to sacrifice. The herder sacrifices an ani mal while the farmer sacrifices some plants. The plants are rejected. Leaving the farmer to find another way to sacrifice which in the story is illustrated by him killing his brother. The third type of person, the hunter, is absent during all this suggesting the hunter still clung to the old ways and may have disapproved of the new religious thought. The hunter may have been the one telling the story, which is why the story has a negative tone.