Dear colleagues,

Please take a look at the call for papers below for the conference in Aarhus on "Origins of Religion, Cognition and Culture". We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible. The conference will also be the inaugural venue of the newly established International Association for the Cognitive Science of Religion.

Yours truly,
Armin W. Geertz

Call for papers

Origins of Religion, Cognition and Culture

Laboratory of Theories of Religion
Research Project "Religion, Cognition and Culture"
University of Aarhus in Aarhus, Denmark

January 5-7, 2006

The conference will mark the first of a series of conferences on special themes in our four-year research project on "Religion, Cognition and Culture" (2005-2008). The Laboratory on Theories of Religion at the Department of the Study of Religion was awarded the project by the Faculty of Theology at the University of Aarhus. The Chairman is Armin W. Geertz and the Coordinator is Jeppe Sinding Jensen.

The research group consists of scholars from a wide range of disciplines at our university and abroad. Our goal is to explore the interstices of religion, cognition and culture in an attempt to bring culture back into cognitive study (a problem which has afflicted the cognitive science of religion as well as other cognitive approaches for quite a while).

The topic "Origins of Religion, Cognition and Culture" can be seen as one of the most interesting, challenging and provocative topics in the cognitive science of religion. It must certainly also be counted as one of the most fundamental topics for the human sciences in general and religious studies in particular. During the past twenty years, major advances have been made in a wide variety of disciplines and sciences: comparative religion, evolutionary psychology, cognitive archaeology, neurosciences, ethology, developmental psychology, social psychology, cognitive linguistics palaeo-anthropology and genetics. Efforts to discover and explain the evolutionary origins of Homo sapiens sapiens have led to a wide variety of hypotheses based on attempts to define what is particularly human about human beings. We read of the Grandmother Hypothesis, the aquatic ape, man the tool-maker, man the hunter, woman the gatherer, symbolic thresholds, the speaking ape, social intelligence, the Great Hominid Escape from the nervous system, epistemic hunger, the hybrid mind, and so on. All of these attempts to understand the origins of humanity have raised fundamental questions about the complex relationship between cognition and culture. Are they two sides of the same coin? Or is culture epiphenomenal to other more basic processes? And how does religion fit into the picture?

Central to the debates on origins is the role of religion, religious ritual and religious experience. What came first: individual religious (ecstatic) experiences, collective observances of transition situations, fear of death, ritual competence, magical coercion, mirror neurons or temporal lobe religiosity? Together with the development of symbolic thinking, the role of material culture, the role of written language and abstract thought in the development of religious systems, the rise of symbolic identities and so on, are all central areas of competence in the humanities and social sciences. Cognitive scientists are now providing us with important insights on phylogenetic and ontogenetic processes, and we would do well to listen to them. Together with insights from the humanities and social sciences on the origins, development and maintenance of complex semiotic, social and cultural systems, a general picture of what is particularly human about humans should emerge. Reflections on the preconditions for symbolic and linguistic competence and practice are now within our grasp.

Papers are encouraged on any of the above-mentioned topics. We encourage participants from a wide variety of disciplines in the human, social and natural sciences to attend. Ph.d. candidates are also encouraged to give reports or short papers as well. Types of papers beside the invited keynote talks will be: papers (30 + 15 min.) and brief presentations/reports (20 + 10 min.).

The conference organizers are planning to produce a conference volume of selected papers which is slated to appear in a new series titled Religion, Cognition and Culture at Equinox Press in London.

The conference will also host the inaugural meeting of the International Association for the Cognitive Science of Religion (IACSR). The main purpose of the IACSR would be to meet annually and talk about our favorite subject. The preliminary mission statement is:
1. to coordinate and to support research projects in the cognitive science of religion
2. to disseminate information about these projects and to support and encourage the publication of research (on-line journal?)
3. to meet annually to discuss current and projected research projects
Further details will be provided as we approach the inaugural meeting but we invite colleagues to become Founding Members. In order to be considered a founding member, we request an initial payment of 80 euros/100 US dollars. Sponsoring Organizations are invited to contribute an initial payment of 160 euros/200 US dollars. For further details, please visit the IACSR website at:
<http://www.iacsr.com>

Venue: Faculty of Theology, University of Aarhus, Denmark
Dates: January 5-7, 2006 (international participants, please plan on arriving on the 4th and departing on the 8th)
Conference fee: DKK 300
Deadline for titles, type of paper to be given, 10-line abstracts and other information (position, degree, institutional and email addresses): December 15, 2005
All inquiries should be sent to: [log in to unmask]

Accommodations: Please arrange your own accommodations. A complete list of hotels can be found at this address: <http://www.visitaarhus.com/composite-1717.htm>. We recommend the following hotel: CAB INN Aarhus <http://www.cabinn.dk/>.

Armin W. Geertz & Jeppe Sinding Jensen
Department of the Study of Religion
University of Aarhus, Taasingegade 3
DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark

<http://www.teo.au.dk/en/research/current/cognition>