Hi Alan, I forgot to mention, but also look at (google) the 'Ryemarksgaard axe' from Denmark.  This decorated bone artefact could say a lot about the ritual mindset of Mesolithic hunter/fisher/gatherers. There are, of course many other examples from this period and area of Europe.

All interesting.  What Esther argues is that we can see from the ethnographic information, rituals and oral traditions and cosmology an underlying and more ancient cult of community, linieage or clan totems.  Also a series of supernaturals (supramundane beings) that are gernerative and associated with life, death, animal and plants and reproduction of the greater natural world and cosmos.

Interesting subject but I have no clues, non-material culture seems te be hard to catch.

My main interest lies within the culture and way of living of neanderthals on the plains of Northwestern Europe, until now I find no clues to catch, only suspects...

Possibly the quitte new Australian documentary "First footsteps" about rockpaintings and other issues about the way of life of ancient indignious modern humans in Australia could bring some new insights. Their olders stratigraphic correct records reach back in time up to approx. 50.000 years...

Is the defining moment "shamanic", presupposing a before and an after? And is image production in the period following the pre-shamanic, if such exists, exclusively derivative of shamanic experience, as such?  

It is not possible to determine when shamanism first occurred or even what its definition is.  A shaman can involve those who are involved in healing arts rather than metaphysical ones so it is possible that they existed even among Neanderthals.  We know that they not only ritually buried their dead but also treated the injuries of their contemporaries.

If the question is however concentrated on the formation of formal religious beliefs we can again observe that hunter-gatherer communities today, as in ancient times have spiritual beliefs usually associated with creation and humanity's place in the universe (environment)  

All religious beliefs are manfestations of the human capacity for abstract thought.  Some evidence, albeit limited and in part conjectural places the development of his way back in hominid evolution.  The lower palaeolithic handaxe incorporating a fossil bivalve shell from West Tofts, Norfolk, England indicates aesthetic or symbolic appreciation in palaeolithic hunters.

Even more intriguing is the Makapansgat pebble which bears the naturally formed image of a human face dating back to the Australopithecines.  This pebble had been transported from its site of origin indicating it may have been picked up and carried after being recognised.   

If abstract thought was present in early hominids then some form of spiritual ideas may have formed.

That news about Makapansgat is interesting. You can look to Rhino Cave for some of the earliest evidence of ritual behavior and the roots of spirituality. I gave a paper about the Anzick infant in Montana (USA)  at a Sociology conference in Hawaii ...12 years later, I summarize my thoughts about H-G spirituality and ritual practices in a paper dedicated to my former boss who reported on the Buhl burial in American Antiquity. It's a stream of conciousness paper that attempts to gather evidence to address patterning regarding New World evolution of spiritual practices. For the earliest hunters, elk are included as burial accoutrements and elk continued to be an important symbol in portable art and in rock art in some regions of the western US. There is a vast amount of literature on the subject.

Although maybe not entirely related to your main research I could advise you to have a look at R.A. Rappaport 1999: Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity. This book really looks at the development of human religious and ritual development and practice on many different levels. It might prove useful to your studies. 

Hello,

in my sadly only in german published phd i did a research about the use of the ethnological term "shaman" in archaeological interpretations of deviant burials. As this term first was introduced in science in the 17. century by the russian orthodox priest Avvakuum, it transformed in a verry short time into a universal "Jack of all trades" concept, beeing used for everything that was not fitting the eurcentristic priest concept. During the Jesup Expedition the term was adapted into the modern science and then, as Franz Boas methodology was famous and worldwide accepted, bit by bit introduced into all desribing concepts in social anthropology worldwide. Dixon was the first, who really broke the long time resistance of the US-Scienstists, who preferred the medicine man as typical concept for north american religious specialists.

As your question was, if the described foragers could have used other concepts than "shamanistic" - which is, referring to the ethnological discourse a religious specialist who uses ghosts as agents for his interaction with the spiritual world to protect its community against harm - well, the question would be: What leads you to the idea, that it could have been really a "shaman" - and not a form of religious specialist?

And, to add a question from my side: What is not "feminin" regarding the concept of shamanism? Cause this concept normally integrates seperate levels of gender positions, not only female/male but as many researchers have shown, a lot of gradual concepts that even involve gender-change and gender-transformations with part-time an full-time appearence.

Best wishes,

Andy Reymann

This may have been old news but one of the Paleolithic sites (maybe in Russia/Ukraine?) contains shaman skeletal remains ...they are reported to be those of a female, see Woman in the Shaman's body by Barbara Tedlock

@Julia Morrow: Do you mean the burial from Ust´Udinsk?

The earliest I know of was flowers found in a Neaderthal grave at Shanidar Cave in northern Iraq.  Find Ralph Soleki's report.

There is (somewhat later) a painted bison skull from a Paleoindian kill site in Oklahoma.  Find Lee Bement's report on the Cooper Site.

I notice that the witless nincompoop downvoter is now operating on this thread.  Academic debate is not the domain for buffoons so you would be better off trolling someplace else.