The Great Tree of Religion with Simon E Davies (LIVE!)

Simon Davies and I look at his Great Tree of Religion, which documents over 500 religions and how they are connected. This was a fascinating discussion and the first ever livestream, and you all were amazing. Thankyou!

[dalestaley]

I adored this. Decades . I saw this examination of our stars from people around the world. There's only so much one can do in the dark and around a fire. Star gazing, mapping, story telling are just a few.
The mapping was very accurate for its time.
We minimized what ancient ancestors did. They navigated the world with what was available at the time. They did it well.

Today was delightful. Such an educational opportunity for us. Thank you Jon, Simon.
I've followed Jon, for ages, now will follow Simon. What a joy.
We should go camping around a fire sometime. Imagine what our predecessors would be doing.

[kamrandehghan]

Truly an awesome fascinating video and conversation. Thanks to you both for doing this.

[didjesbydan]

I love the focus on Mesoamerica! I too had noticed the Aztecs' dismembered-being motif (Tlaltecuhtli-Cipactli) and have been thinking it must have made it's way across rather than having independently evolved.
If possible, I would love a list of authors which were mentioned as discussing the waves of mythological migration to the Americas. I was able to pick up on one of them: Michael Witzel. Any others that shed some good insight into this?

[julia]

Thank you so much for putting this together!!

[oscargranda]

chart....excelente way to learn in comprehensive way

[thegoodthebadandtheugly]

So great that you mentioned Michael Witzel and his book!!! Well done! He is a legend for writing that book. One thing that I absolutely agree with is that mythologies didn’t disperse in the Jungian “collective consciousness” ways - it was obviously due to diffusion at different ages.. and because of the mix between the ages of migrations, conquests, trade and other, we get different mythemes travel from different places at different times, mixing with the mythemes which are locally developed and refined, we get a lot of eclectic thinking which leads to polytheistic thinking and henotheistic thinking etc etc

[greenthumb]

Sorry I missed the live. Great show, what a fantastic project!

[natashatingle]

Simon mentioned the idea of creating a story based on panpsychism as a sacred element, that modern people could get behind. The Mimbari faith in the sci-fi show Babylon 5 did this, and people really connect with the idea.

[CliffSedge-nufv]

1:17:45 7-day week is from length of moon phase. A lunar cycle is 28 days. A lunar phase is one fourth of that.

[Tara-Maya]

Great to see you on here Simon. All the best!

[Bjorn_Algiz]

Wonderful insight and collection of knowledge 😊❤

[matthewdrum]

That was a very fun Livestream. Thank you both very much.

[LuDux]

That little picture with Simon with tree of religion in background looked like electronic musician with modular syntheser. And Jon looks like songwriter with bunch of rhyming dictionaries

Mythopia feat Jon F White - Future Magic (available in all good music shops)

[ethandoingstuff]

Damn! Wish I’d known this was on so I could watch live! Loved the stream though :)

[jenifehlberg]

Not all rock art in Australia was made by the Aborigines according to the tribe elders, the very earliest rock art was done by people who were unknown to them. And the style of art is also very different. Interesting. ❤

[Thehaystack]

31:37 Anishinabe oral histories speak of them coming from the eastern sea, on a cloud or by sail, and others which came by turtle shells of wood, these migrations were few and far between while there was a pattern of Asiatic groups which came from the West and North West. DNA on Haplogroup X shows that these Algonquin groups ancient were directly connected with the Middle East. So there must be some
Migration on boat which primarily settles in the Great Lakes region and were part of the more ancient mounds of North America as the bulk of other DNA was directly out of NorthWestern Asia. Many Birch Bark Scrolls will supposedly be released this Fall. Their creation stories align with Chinese and Biblical creation myths. Animism as used by them is similar to Adapa naming characteristics, the animal was a symbol and taught almost as in parable and symbol and followed the same Mystery religion in acting out creation and mixing it with audience participation and covenant making. A new book called “In The Language of Adam” may be good supplemental reading and context.

[chuzzbot]

This should be as common knowledge as the evolutionary chart with all the dinosaurs.
Digital overlays would be really great.
What an achievement, no matter what stage of development it is. Bravo

[TheDanEdwards]

It's a real stretch to assign to the category of "religion the remains of _Homo naledi_ in the Star cave system. There's still an ongoing debate about many aspects of the discoveries there.

[Nadia-ewdc]

I find this so interesting, I had an Ancestry DNA test done and it showed up that I have Mesoamerican DNA. I have no clue how it got there but my guess is through my Asian or Fijian ancestors.

[ReximusTyrannus]

I'm curious - today you see religion being cultural and historically stratified across the globe. And determines the majority of that areas human population and their beliefs. What typologies of ancient religions depend on the location and what about the region created that typology?