Let's Call It a Ritual Object - Ep 161

Thanks to everyone who came out to our virtual live show! This is the edited audio of that event. We talk about the role of ritual in daily life, how our big round human brains have evolved the ability to think about abstract meaning and ritual significance, and the theory underpinning all of this. We also take a trip to two incredible archaeological sites to think about how the people living there might have thought about the unknown and unseen in their lives. Whoa.

Links

• Emile Durkheim: religion – the very idea, part 3: ritual, ancient and modern (The Guardian)

• Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice

• ‘Materiality, Belief, Ritual – Archaeology and Material Religion’. An Introduction (Material Religion)

• Materiality: An Introduction (UCL Anthropology)

• Materiality (Society for Cultural Anthropology)

• How Did Belief Evolve? (Sapiens)

• The evolution of modern human brain shape (Science Advances)

• A Shocking Find in a Neanderthal Cave in France (The Atlantic)

• Neanderthals Built Mysterious Stone Circles (National Geographic)

• Early Neanderthal constructions deep in Bruniquel Cave in southwestern France (Nature)

• Athens in Pieces: What Really Happened at Eleusis? (New York Times)

• The Psychedelic Cult That Thrived For Nearly 2000 Years (Gizmodo)

• mysteries, Eleusinian (Oxford Classical Dictionary)

• Mystery Cults in the Greek and Roman World (Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History)

• The Ritual Path of Initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries (Rosicrucian Digest)

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• Email the Dirt Podcast: thedirtpodcast@gmail.com

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It's A Pod Mitzvah - Ep 130

Amber and Anna discuss some of the different rituals, ceremonies, and traditions associated with coming of age in cultures around the world and throughout time. From tossing baby teeth up to the roof to tying a vine to your ankles and jumping off a wooden tower, it's all fascinating.

Links

• Young People's Conceptions of the Transition to Adulthood (Youth & Society)

• Voice Changes for Boys During Puberty (Very Well Family)

• Right–left and the scrotum in Greek sculpture (Laterality, via ResearchGate)

• 13 Amazing Coming of Age Traditions From Around the World (Global Citizen)

• Rite of Passage (Cultural Anthropology)

• The Excruciating Bullet Ant Glove Test Of The Mawé People (All That’s Interesting)

• What It's Like to Get Stung by the World's Most Painful Insect (Esquire)

• Seijin No Hi: Celebrating Japanese Youth’s Rite of Passage (Savvy Tokyo)

• Meet Vanuatu's land-diving daredevils, who inspired bungee jumping (CNN Travel)

• Coming of Age Rituals (Hudson County Community Colleges Libraries)

• Girling the girl and boying the boy: the production of adulthood in ancient Mesoamerica (World Archaeology)

Contact

• Email the Dirt Podcast: thedirtpodcast@gmail.com

Affiliates

• Wildnote

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• Timeular