Evolving Brains, Emerging Gods

by E Fuller Torrey

  Just as new gods and religions will continue to be born, so others will continue to die. Many old gods, such as Anu, Ra, Zeus, and Jupiter, grace the world’s art museums, admired but not revered, viewed as artistic creations rather than divine creations. Such museums should properly be regarded as shrines to dead gods. Other old gods have been adopted by New Age or other contemporary religions. At Avebury and Stonehenge, the solstice is celebrated with hymns to druid gods by the Secular Order of Druids, despite the fact that druids did not exist until 2,000 years after these monuments were built. Similarly, Çatalhöyük in Turkey has become a pilgrimage site for goddess worshipers.42

  Viewing monuments originally built to honor the old gods also provides a needed historical perspective. In Gloucestershire, England, a large burial mound, perhaps 5,000 years old, is said to be “one of the best places in the area for flying kites and model aircraft.” At a nearby mound, in which 24 skeletons were found, “barely a summer Sunday afternoon passes without picnickers.” In Newark, Ohio, the extraordinary Great Circle Earthworks, sacred burial mounds created by the Hopewell people 2,000 years ago, have been incorporated into the Moundbuilders Country Club’s 18-hole golf course. Some burial mounds serve as tees, while others act as bunkers surrounding the holes. The ninth tee, for example, is on top of an eight-foot mound, and the 219-yard, par 3 hole follows the passage that originally divided the ancient octagon from the great circle, a likely route for stately religious processions. Included on the country club’s website is the following note: “Won’t archeologists 2000 years from now be puzzled as they study the mounds and find all those lost golf balls?”43

  Most of the old gods and religious monuments, however, have been lost to human history. They stand, like Ozymandias, as “two vast and trunkless legs of stone” in the desert:

  Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

  Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

  Of the colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

  The lone and level sands stretch far away.44

  APPENDIX A

  THE EVOLUTION OF THE BRAIN

  In order to understand the evolution of the human brain, it is useful to consider exactly what it is in the brain that is undergoing evolution. Most obvious, of course, is the size of the brain, both its absolute size and its relative size. In an absolute sense, whales and elephants have much larger brains that humans do, but relative to the size of their bodies they have much smaller brains than humans. More important than the overall size of the brain is the size of specific brain areas. In humans, for example, the frontal pole (BA 10), an area associated with many cognitive functions discussed in this book, is said to be “twice the size of what we would expect” based on comparisons with other primates. Brain size is discussed at length in chapter 2.1

  During human evolution, the neurons, glial cells, and connecting fibers all underwent changes. The neurons increased in number and became more closely packed, so that humans have 25,000 to 30,000 neurons per cubic millimeter of brain cortex. By comparison, whales and elephants have only 6,000 to 7,000 neurons per cubic millimeter of brain cortex. Glial cells, which are 10 times more numerous than neurons, also underwent evolutionary changes. Especially important are the glial cells that make myelin coating for the connecting fibers, because it is the myelin coating, in combination with the diameter of the nerve fiber, that speeds up the transmission of information on the connecting fibers. Humans have thick myelin coverings on the connecting fibers, whereas whales and elephants have very thin myelin coverings; this is a major reason why the transmission of information in human brains is up to five times faster than in whales and elephants.2

  The relative importance of glial cells and connecting fibers in human brain evolution was illustrated by a comparative study of gray matter (neurons) and white matter (glial cells and connecting fibers) in the prefrontal brain region in chimpanzees and humans. It was expected that the major difference between chimpanzees and humans would be in the gray matter.

  However, humans had only 2 percent more gray matter than chimpanzees but 31 percent more white matter. In a related study, it was reported that brain connections develop much faster in human infants than they do in chimpanzee infants. Such studies suggest that “humans may have an enhanced ability to integrate information across modalities in comparison to other primates” and that it is our white matter connecting tracts more so than our gray matter neurons that make us uniquely human.3

  The ascertainment of which brain areas developed early in the evolution of hominins and which areas developed more recently is important. Three measures are most commonly used.

  The most widely used method is the development of myelin around the connecting nerve fibers. It is the myelin that speeds up the transmission of information on the nerve fibers. The process of myelination begins while the developing brain is still in utero and continues after birth, through adolescence, and into the person’s twenties. The order in which the myelination of the nerve fibers takes place is assumed to reflect the order in which these brain areas evolved. As stated by Orthello Langworthy, an embryologist at Johns Hopkins University who did detailed studies of myelination, “The pathways in the nervous system become myelinated in the order in which they were developed phylogenetically.”4

  The definitive study of myelination was carried out in the 1890s by a German researcher, Paul Emil Flechsig, who studied the brains of deceased infants, ranking 45 brain areas by their degree of myelination. Nine areas, or 20 percent of the total, were found to be the least myelinated in the infant brains; these areas were assumed to have evolved most recently and were referred to by Flechsig as “terminal zones.” Even though the “terminal zones” include only 20 percent of the brain areas listed by Flechsig, it is significant that they include most of the areas discussed in this book as being associated with the cognitive abilities that make us uniquely human. The exceptions to this rule are a few evolutionarily older brain areas, such as the hippocampus and cerebellum, that were altered later in evolution to accommodate more recently derived functions, as described in chapter 6.5

  Postmortem human brains offer a second measure to assess which brain regions evolved most recently. This is the relative degree of infolding, or gyrification, as it is also called, of various brain regions. As primate brains evolved, they developed progressively more infoldings; such infoldings allowed the brain to increase its surface area without the brain having to grow larger in size. Thus, humans have 49 percent more infoldings than rhesus monkeys and 17 percent more infoldings than chimpanzees. Within human brains, different regions have different degrees of infolding. This has been studied by German anatomist Karl Zilles and his colleagues, who ranked the regions in human brains using a gyrification index. The two most infolded brain regions, and thus the most recently evolved, are the prefrontal cortex and parietal lobe, both of which include areas critical for the cognitive abilities that make us uniquely human. Zilles et al. concluded that “a higher degree of infolding … is interpreted as an indicator of a progressive evolution of this cortical region in humans.” Related to this is a third measure of maturation, which is the degree to which the brain infoldings are similar from one person to another. Almost a century ago, it was noted that individual anatomical variability “suggests at once, if it exceeds rather narrow limits, that the organ or structure concerned has not yet reached its full development”; in other words, a greater variation in the pattern of infoldings indicates that that brain area has evolved more recently. The inferior parietal area, which is very important for our discussion, is well known among neuroanatomists for “the bewildering variety of the sulcal [groove] patterns in this region,” an indication of its recent origin. Other researchers have also commented on the “very considerable variation” in the pattern of infoldings in both frontal and parietal areas in human brains.6

  APPENDIX B

  DREAMS AS PROOF OF THE EXISTENCE OF A SPIRIT WORLD AND LAND OF THE DEAD

  The Human Relations
Area Files (HRAF) is a nonprofit organization at Yale University. It was founded in 1949 to bring together in one place nineteenth- and twentieth-century ethnographic accounts of cultures from around the world. Since 1994 these accounts have been available online (http://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu). As of June 2016, HRAF files included 295 cultures, which are categorized by subsistence type. Seventy-one of the 295 cultures are hunter-gatherers, defined as depending almost entirely or largely on hunting, fishing, and gathering for subsistence. The following are some accounts of dreams in these hunter-gatherer societies from the HRAF files.

  CREEK INDIANS OF SOUTHEASTERN STATES

  The body is buried with personal possessions and food offerings for the journey and monthly offerings are left at the grave for the first year. The spirits of the dead are believed to appear in dreams to advise the living. (Richard A. Sattler, Culture Summary: Creek [New Haven, CT: Human Relations Area Files, 2009], http://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=nn11–000.)

  COMANCHE INDIANS OF THE GREAT PLAINS

  Religious patterns included a belief in a vaguely defined Great Spirit who was the fountainhead of all power but who did not interfere in human affairs. This power could be obtained by men through dreams in which a supernatural patron or guardian spirit endowed the petitioner with a certain amount of power and various songs and procedures needed by the recipients to manipulate his Medicine. (David E. Jones, Sanapia, Comanche Medicine Woman [New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1972], http://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=no06–031.)

  UTE INDIANS OF UTAH AND COLORADO

  When you dream about your dead relatives n’saka’, they are just trying to tell you something that you should do. In most instances dreams are attributed to personalized spirit beings, yet sometimes they emanate from the impersonal wellsprings of power itself. (Joseph G. Jorgensen, Ethnohistory and Acculturation of the Northern Ute [Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms, 1980], http://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=nt19–019.)

  EASTERN APACHE INDIANS OF THE SOUTHWEST

  Most often it is in dreams that the dead are distinctly seen:

  Ghosts appear also in dreams, in sleep. That is the worst form, I guess. You really see them in a dream. I get like that. The door opens and they get closer and closer. I want to get up and fight, but I can’t move. I can just say, “Ah!” The Chiricahua say this is ghost sickness. It can make a person very ill. It’s a sign of trouble with evil ghosts if you do that too much, and you have to go to a shaman about it.

  (Morris Edward Opler, An Apache Life-Way: The Economic, Social, and Religious Institutions of the Chiricahua Indians [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1941], http://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=nt08–001.)

  POMO INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA

  The reason for burning the possessions of a dead person was not that the dead might use the objects in the ghost world, but because the possessions would be rendered impure by ghostly visitations. Ghosts returned in the form of dreams and haunted their cherished possessions. (Edwin Meyer Loeb, Pomo Folkways, Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology [Berkeley: University of California Press, 1926], http://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=ns18–003.)

  YORUK INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA

  The prophets [of the Yoruk] visited the dead in dreams and carried messages from them—once even that they would appear the next day. (A. L. [Alfred Louis] Kroeber, Handbook of the Indians of California, bulletin [Washington: Government Printing Office, 1925], http://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=ns31–009.)

  TLINGIT INDIANS OF ALASKA

  In any case, it denotes the entity which “lives” after death, which returns to visit the living in dreams, and which becomes reincarnated. It would appear, therefore, to apply to the essential “self” of the person. (Frederica De Laguna, Under Mount Saint Elias: The History and Culture of the Yakutat Tlingit, Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology [Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1972; for sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. Govt. Print. Off.], http://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=na12–020.)

  OJIBWA INDIANS OF CANADA

  A further link between persons of this category and human beings of the grandparent class is the fact that, collectively, other-than-human persons were referred to as “our grandfathers.” Besides this, the Ojibwa believed that they came into direct personal contact with other-than-human persons in their dreams. (A. Irving [Alfred Irving] Hallowell, “Northern Ojibwa Ecological Adaptation and Social Organization,” in Contributions to Anthropology: Selected Papers of A. Irving Hallowell [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976], http://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=ng06–067.)

  STONEY (NAKODA) INDIANS OF CANADA

  Even if no specific vision was granted the seeker, the Great Spirit’s presence was never doubted. In times past He appeared and revealed Himself in various ways. He appeared in dreams, visions, and sometimes He spoke to us through the wild animals, the birds, the winds, the thunder, or the changing seasons. (John Snow, These Mountains Are Our Sacred Places: The Story of the Stoney Indians [Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Samuel-Stevens, 1977], http://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=nf12–027.)

  CREE INDIANS OF CANADA

  Manitous or spirits could inhabit all living things, as well as objects or forces (such as wind and thunder); and many of these were considered animate. Manitous appeared in dreams and gave special power or protection to the individual. Some men obtained great powers from the manitous; in curing they called upon manitous for help. (James G. E. Smith, “Western Woods Cree,” in Handbook of North American Indians: Subarctic, ed. June Helm [Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1981; for sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O.], http://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=ng08–002.)

  BELLA COOLA INDIANS OF WESTERN CANADA

  By dreams a man learns the fortune of his supernatural representative, and from them he can judge what is in store for him during the coming year and receive intimations concerning birth and death, secret society matters and, in fact, every phase of human activity, since all are decided at the meeting of Äłquntäm and his associates. Dreams are considered to be especially important at this season of the year and information obtained from them may, perhaps, be the origin of the present firm conviction that some portion of the body actually ascends. (T. F. [Thomas Forsyth] McIlwraith, Bella Coola Indians: Volume One [Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1948], http://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=ne06–001.)

  NOOTKAN INDIANS OF WESTERN CANADA

  People frequently see the dead in dreams and this is regarded as good evidence for the nature of the life of the dead. (Elizabeth Colson, The Makah Indians: A Study of an Indian Tribe in Modern American Society [Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1953], http://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=ne11–002.)

  CHIPEWYAN INDIANS OF NORTHERN CANADA

  The Chipewyan were—and generally are—animists. Animals, spirits, and other animate beings existed in the realm of INKOZE simultaneously with their physical existence. Humans were part of the realm of INKOZE until birth separated them from that larger domain for the duration of their physical existence. Knowledge of INKOZE came to humans in dreams and visions given them by animals or other spirits.… The dead retain a recognizable identity as they may visit the living in dreams or visions. The Christian concept of the soul has been added onto traditional beliefs about the spiritual construction of the person without displacing them. (Henry S. Sharp and John Beierle, Culture Summary: Chipewyans [New Haven, CT: Human Relations Area Files, 2001], http://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=nd07–000.)

  INUIT OF THE CANADIAN ARCTIC

  Because Kirluayok warned us that your medicine would kill us. He said the Spirits of the Sea and Land told him in his dreams that we must avoid touching or receiving anything from you, or we shall all die. (Raymond De Coccola, Paul King, and James Houston, Incredible Eskimo: Life Among the Barren Land Eskimo [Surrey, BC: Hancock House, 1986], http://ehr
afworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=nd08–035.)

  BARAMA RIVER CARIBS OF BRITISH GUIANA

  If a man dreams of a dead person, he believes that he is actually seeing the ghost of the dead walking by at that moment. (John Gillin, The Barama River Caribs of British Guiana, Papers of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology [Cambridge, MA: Museum, 1936], http://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=sr09–001.)

  MATACO INDIANS OF BOLIVIA

  Honhat is also the home of both natural and supernatural forces. Man cannot go there, except in dreams and in ecstasy. It is the place of the dead and the illnesses and therefore regarded as more genuinely evil. (Jan-åke Alvarsson, The Mataco of the Gran Chaco: An Ethnographic Account of Change and Continuity in Mataco Socio-Economic Organization, Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, Uppsala Studies in Cultural Anthropology [Uppsala, Sweden: Academiae Upsaliensis, 1988; distributed by Almqvist and Wiskell International], http://ehrafworldcultures.yale.edu/document?id=si07–009.)