Proposed Panel for

The New England Institute for Cognitive Science and Evolutionary Psychology

Second International Conference: Religion, Cognitive Science, and Evolutionary Psychology

August 12-13, 2003

Homo Narrans: The Storying Species

In this three-part panel, Drs. Van Gelder, Sharpe, and Teske look at aspects of the role of story in human development and society. Dr. Van Gelder explores the interrelationship between the place, story and the spirit suggesting that human behavior and cognition are linked to a set of stories which have great impact on human survival. Dr. Sharpe introduces his work in prehistoric finger flutings as a means for exploring the way in which early Homo sapiens sapiens left remnants of their stories on the walls of limestone caves in Australia and France. He discusses the intersection between science and the spirit in prehistory. Dr. Teske discusses the neuropsychological functions involved in the creation of stories and links this to an explication of the rise of meta-narratives and religion as a means for response to unanswerable existential questions.

Contact for Panel:

Kevin Sharpe
10 Shirelake Close
Oxford, U.K. OX1 1SN
+44-(0)1865-249-906
kevin.sharpe@tui.edu

Leslie Van Gelder: Placing Homo Narrans

Research in the role of place and story in human development and survival suggests that we are humans not because we are sapiens, the wise, but because we are narrans, the storiers. Cultures who recognize place as central to their cultural philosophy emphasize the role of story as the roots of social structure, personal development, language, and spiritual belief systems. In this presentation I discuss the ways in which human biological development lends itself towards a proclivity to story and how story serves as the means through which humans survive. I will emphasize three main story modes – comic, tragic, and pastoral – to shows the ways in which the biological implications of these stories impact humanity and its relationship with the non-human world.

Leslie Van Gelder, Ph.D. in Place Studies, is Co-Director of the Oxford Institute for Science and Spirit, and a member of the faculty of Walden University. She is the author of two forthcoming books on the role of story and place, Weaving a Way Home: The Role of Place and Story in Human Development (University of Michigan Press, 2004) and Turning the Light Around: On the Nature of Inheritance (University of Utah Press, 2004).

Kevin Sharpe: Paleolithic Story Telling?

Why did prehistoric peoples mark lines on various surfaces in Europe, Australia, and other places? I propose that some of the markings are systems of notation, in particular mnemonic forms of ritual stories. To discuss this hypothesis, I look at the finger line markings in Koonalda Cave, Australia, and Rouffignac Cave, France. Several different line marking styles exist, executed by both infants and adults. I raise a set of propositions susceptible to in situ investigation and that elucidate one way the markings might be notational.

Kevin Sharpe, Ph.D. in Mathematics, Ph.D. in Religious Studies, is Professor in the Graduate College, Union Institute and University, Member of Harris Manchester College, Oxford University, Founder of Science & Spirit Magazine, and Co-Director of the Oxford Institute for Science and Spirit. His publications include From Science to an Adequate Mythology (Interface Press, 1984), David Bohm’s World: New Physics and New Religion (Bucknell University Press, 1993), and Sleuthing the Divine: The Nexus of Science and Spirit (Fortress Press, 2000). His research interests include the relationship between spirituality and science, and field work in prehistoric art.

John Teske: Brains and Stories: What's Involved, What's Evolved?

Neuropsychological functions involved in constructing and responding to narrative include memory, attention, emotional marking, and temporal sequencing. Their co-evolutionary emergence with cultural development will be sketched, including their role in long-term memory, anticipation and planning, social reciprocity and reputation, and the emotional connections and abstract commitments that produce the novel virtual realities of human symbolic culture. Finally, an exploration will be offered into the embedding of narrative in mimesis and ritual, its role in the organization of human life and meaning, and in the emergence of religion and other meta-narrative responses to unanswerable existential questions.

John Teske, Ph.D. in Psychology, is Professor of Psychology, Elizabethtown College. He is a specialist in personality and social psychology, and conducts research on nonverbal behavior, environmental psychology, and social cognition, with interests also in evolutionary psychology, philosophical psychology, and the science-religion dialogue.