The Encyclopedia of World Religions

Presbyterian and Reformed churches S 351

that the coming of agriculture meant the death of a goddess, out of whose body came the abundant products of the field. In Neolithic religion, more than before, appeared animal and human SACRIFICE , headhunting, and perhaps cannibalism as a reli gious rite. At the very end of prehistory comes an inter esting development that seems a precursor of the large-scale building of ancient civilization—mega lithism, or the making of megaliths like at Stone henge and other sites in Britain, huge upright stones clearly with some sacred meaning. Parallel to them are the mazes of Malta and the large tombs of Japan. After this came the tiny marks by which engineers and merchants kept dimensions and accounts, and a little later historians kept records, and priests transcribed as scripture the words and deeds of their gods. At this point prehistoric reli gion became the religion of history. But many of the basic themes of religion—gods, temples, ritu als, the role of religious specialists, myths, religion as the upholder of community values—had already been laid down. Further reading: Cynthia Eller, The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory: Why an Invented Past Won’t Give Women a Future (Boston: Beacon Press, 2000); Marija Gimbutas, The Living Goddesses, Miriam Robbins Dexter, ed. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999); Timothy Insoll, Archaeology, Ritual, Religion (London: Routledge, 2004); Steven Mithen, The Prehistory of the Mind: A Search for the Origins of Art, Religion, and Science (London: Thames & Hudson, 1999). Presbyterian and Reformed churches Prot estant churches that follow the teachings of John C ALVIN (1509–64). Technically, any churches that follow John Calvin’s teachings are Reformed churches. Presbyterian churches are Reformed churches that are organized in a particular way. They are governed by assemblies of ministers and elected lay representatives. The name “Presby terian” comes from the word “presbyter,” which

All these things suggest themes found today in the religion of many tribal peoples. There is the idea of soul, a life-principle separable from the body and having a separate destiny, perhaps going to another world, perhaps being reborn in this one. Hunting magic that wins the favor of the gods in opening and closing the forests and the goodwill of the animals important to the survival of the tribe, is essential. Some form of initiation of young men, and often of young women, into the tribe is also very common. For the tribe is a spiritual unity, a reality also reflected in its dances and stories. To become a true part of it is the most important thing in a person’s life. One or two of the early cave paintings have suggested to some observers another figure in much recent Paleolithic religion, but which may go back a very long ways indeed: the shaman ( see SHAMANISM ). A shaman is a religious special ist who typically has had a special call and initia tion greater than the ordinary, and who is a special mediator between this world and the next. The shaman is a healer, driving out EVIL spirits or find ing lost and strayed souls. Going into trance, she or he may communicate in the voices of gods or ancestors, or even travel to the other world. The shaman is the prototype of many later religious personalities: the priest, the prophet, the medium, the poet and bard. The Neolithic or New Stone Age is basically stone age society after the discovery of agricul ture. Beginning some 12,000 years ago, probably in Asia, it meant the onset of sedentary communi ties. Religiously, agriculture meant a revolution no less profound than was the social and economic impact of farming. Attention moved to the Earth, to the mother GODDESS who is often identified with the Earth, and to the cycle of seasons with seed time PRAYERS and harvest festivals. All in all, agri culture meant a new emphasis on goddesses and the sacredness of the Earth. In some places it also meant a darker development in religion, for farm ing has its anxious side and brings a fuller real ization of the relation of death and life: Like the seed, the seeming death of one thing can mean the life of another. Neolithic mythology often told