Origins of Human Spirituality, Creativity and Storytelling
Zulu dance is an ancient form of ritualized storytelling where every move has meaning. Photograph: ©Steven Wade Adams, South Africa 2024
This blog entry is not as much of a report on a specific photographic project but rather some broader musings as to what comprises essential dimensions of humanity.
This certainly relates to photography and my photographic journey in particular, since as humanitarian photographers we seek to capture not only the beauty of individuality but also the universality of our shared human experience in the form of visual stories.
While travelling in Eswatini and South Africa in the fall of 2024, I had the opportunity to meet Bob Forrester, a archaeologist/anthropologist with a special interest in the roots of African shamanism. Bob has been fascinated by the origin of spirituality as well as various forms of creativity for many years and his provocative ideas ignited my imagination as to what it must have been like as an early human with emerging language skills and no scientific understanding of the universe to begin to grapple with existential questions of life/death and spirituality.
Bob speculates that these functions must have emerged with the evolving expansion of human brain capacity and advanced cognitive function of homo sapiens. When considering the conflicting neuro-science and nuances of where feelings of spirituality exist within our brains this seems to ne only part of the answer. While it is generally accepted that the frontal lobes are responsible for our creativity and imagination we also know that emotions are found elsewhere, in more primitive regions of the brain. Still it does seem logical, that the evolving ability to understand the difference between past, present and future as well as the capacity to explain, or at least attempt to explain dreams melded to enable the advancement of spiritual practices that likely involve a range of regions within our brains.
The Evolution of Spirituality and Creativity
The feelings associated with spirituality may not primarily located within the same brain regions as creativity, but the expansion of our frontal cortex and the corresponding ability to explain our dreams, visions and spiritual experiences (accurate or not) would possibly have allowed the latter to be better explained and subsequently assume greater significance in early human society.
Regardless of the precise locations in which these capacities exist anatomically or exactly when in our evolution they first emerged, the integrated relationship between spirituality and creativity was almost certainly present in early human societies. The fact that spirituality and creativity are found in all humans around the world points to a close relationship between the two as inseparable dimensions of our shared human experience and suggests that these were found in very early humans. This is the basis on which Bob would agree that spirituality arose from the African continent as we believe did our ealiest human ancestors.
These relationships become even more robust during later periods upon the emergence of highly organized religions during in the Middle Ages and Renaissance in Europe/Near East and even earlier in Asian spiritual practice. While each spiritual practice has unique differences, there are many practices and motifs that are surprisingly similar regardless of where they are found across the world (e.g. note the widely observed concepts of elements as in earth, wind, fire and water).
Recently, I shared a blog that described my interactions with the spiritual healers of South Africa and Eswatini know as Sangoma. These intimate interactions provided a unique opportunity for photography that I hope stirred your curiosity. These spiritual healers maintain elements of very primitive spiritual practice such as ancestor worship while melding these practices with modern Christianity.
A traditional healer in South Africa bridges the realms of the living and the deceased. Photograph: ©Steven Wade Adams, South Africa 2024
Today, I share a sample of photographs I made during this trip, as well as other related African expeditions, that illustrate the emergence of spiritual practices across the vast and mystical African continent possible even before early humans dispersed across the globe. When they left Africa, they likely took with them their early creative capacity, interpretations of spirituality and perhaps even storytelling methods and structure with them.
The Importance of Dreams
We know that even Homo Erectus (potentially our ancestors) utilized tools and were capable of the complex planning needed to migrate successfully over wide areas. While the brain size is estimated to be only about half of modern humans these early hominoids had already moved towards a path of creativity (for which we have evidence) and possibly spirituality (for which we do not).
Human ancestors, like many species (think of your dog) today, undoubtedly dreamt. Understanding what dreams were would have been perplexing and perhaps distressful to early humans. It was likely the first time humans could contemplate two dimensions, awake and not awake, light and dark, alive and something else. How scary it must have been for them to see and hear their dead ancestors as well as beasts with fantastical supernatural capacities and powers.
As early hominoid species evolved and their brains became more capable of complex thought and language, at some point so did their articulation of dreams and their quest to explain them to one another. While these early dreamers lived short and dangerous lives, many likely experienced memories of their immediate ancestors which likely appeared in their dreams. Such experiences may have shaped the framework of more elaborate spiritual rituals and social frameworks surrounding these phenomena.
Cave drawings at Mkhuzweni Rock made by the San people in Eswatini approximately 1000 years ago (1 kya). These rock paintings were made with ochre and other materials (such as kaolin) appear to represent males hunters as well as prey animals and possibly cattle with themes such as life and death. Photograph: ©Steven Wade Adams, Eswatini, 2024
Eswatini is not widely known for its archaeological richness, but many sites have recently been discovered. Our group had the opportunity to visit the site of a group of newly discovered rock paintings which depict hunters, women and prey animals as well as what appears to be cattle, which would have been present across Africa at the time.
These paintings depicted here were created by the San people, sometimes referred to as African Bushmen. These ancient people were some of the earliest visual storytellers of record in South Africa, and the topics of their rock paintings were important elements of their lives which focused on hunting and prey animals as well as fertility, life and death.
Some of these and other cave paintings are relatively realistic, while others are fantastical interpretations of life and creatures. We were the very first visitors to this newly discovered rock painting outside of the local village and the archaeological team. We were therefore named “Emahlahlandela” by the local people meaning the first to come to Mkhuzweni Rock. This important rock painting is planned to become a national preserve soon.
The Significance of Ochre to Spiritual Practice
Ochre (iron oxide) for sale in a market in Eswatini. Varying shades of red are sold that reflects the purity of the iron oxide within the mined material. Photograph: ©Steven Wade Adams, Eswatini, 2024
Bob Forrester not only facilitated our visit to Mkhuzweni Rock, he captivated our group with his fascination and interest in the historical use of ochre and its relationship to the development of human spiritualism. (The Digging Stick April 2021).
Bob has described his observation of the essential need in spiritual practice to access the spiritual world. This can be accomplished across many societies through various mechanisms.
These four mechanisms are dreams, trances, mind-altering substances and/or ochre. When one cannot access the other more challenging paths such as dreams or trance, ochre provided (and still provides) a more readily accessible option.
Ochre (iron oxide) has been used for various spiritual and practical uses around the world for millennia. The most ancient ochre mine located in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) known as the Lion Cave Mine has been documented to have been mined as far back as 48,000 years ago. This natural colored clay pigment, was commonly used for body decoration, cave art, and ceremonial practices, reflecting the cultural and spiritual beliefs of the people.
The vibrant colors of ochre, ranging from deep reds to yellows, not only enhanced aesthetic expression but also conveyed social status and identity within communities. Furthermore, ochre's preservative properties have often made it valuable in burial rituals, where it symbolized life, death, and the continuity of existence. Thus, ochre became a vital component of the art, ritual, and daily lives of ancient civilizations that continue to this day in societies around the world.
Site of the The Lion Cave Mine in Eswatini that has been mined for ochre for at least 48,000 years Photograph: ©Steven Wade Adams, Eswatini, 2024
Human Spirituality and Animals
Some clear examples of the use of ochre may be observed by various tribes across Africa. The tribes found in Namibia and Angola are especially famous for their liberal use of high-quality ochre to protect their hair and skin with the Himba representing the best known example. Interestingly, once cattle were domesticated and became closely associated with human populations in Africa, the cattle themselves became intertwined with human spiritual practices and beliefs.
The Himba people of Northern Namibia and Angola use ochre liberally on their skin as a cosmetic and sun protection and many of their adornments are intended to resemble cattle which have spiritual significance to many of these tribes. Photograph: ©Steven Wade Adams, Angola, 2022
Cattle have their own lineages which can be observed by humans in a more compressed timeline and in many places cattle provide an additional path to accessing ones ancestors. It is also interesting that the Himba people themselves actually go to considerable lengths to make themselves actually look like cattle which can be observed in their traditional hairstyles well as the clothing of both men and women.
The close relationship of humans with their domesticated animals in Africa is of special interest to me, and it has been in place there for millennia. If you would like to read more on this topic, see my blog on the importance of preserving pastoralism in Africa. Also, in an earlier post, I described the critical relationships of the Suri people of the Omo Valley with their cattle which is almost certainly intertwined with traditional spiritual practices and beliefs. In Eswatini today, the most spiritual location in the country is amongst the royal cattle.
Borana herding cattle during lush rainy season in northern Kenya. Photograph: ©Steven Wade Adams, Kenya 2024.
The Ability to Interpret Dreams Provided a Social Advantage
As humans further evolved and the hominoid brain became larger, cognitive reasoning advanced to provide a range of significant survival advantages. Such cognitive development would bring with it the ability to describe dreams and visions. Those that were able to generate a track record for accurately interpreting the meaning of these dreams and these interpretations resulted in meaningful advantages to the tribe would likely bestow great social power on these people. These may have been destined to become the first shaman of their communities.
The ability to interact with the spiritual world of ancestors continues as a basis of traditional African spiritualism today, firmly embedded in modern religious practice even after Africans integrated their traditional beliefs with Christianity. See my earlier blog on Humanitarian Photography and Shamanism in South Africa.
The greatest brain size increases appear to coincide with a period in the past 800,000 years ago, that coincided with significant climatic variability. Additionally, the most significant dispersion of early humans occurred approximately 45,000-120,000 years ago. Bob reminded us that as climatic instability threatened human survival, the increased intelligence of early hominids that allowed them to more effectively relate, adapt and compete when food was scarce and/or inconsistent would have had a meaningful evolutionary advantage.
Early humans were hunter-gatherers, so it stands to reason that the ability to consider and communicate temporal patterns and concepts of past and future movements of prey as well as memory of effective hunting strategies would all enhance one’s survival.
Equipped with increased cognitive capacity and the development of more complex language, early humans would now be able to consider and interpret dreams involving events, weather and ancestors which could in turn provide practical direction and guidance for their living descendants. Those who could divine meaning from these dreams and other spiritual signs might provide useful and accurate information for the group which would in turn likely be rewarded with social power and status. These individuals would be who we would think of as Shaman.
A sangoma in Eswatini provides consulting for critical life decisions by communicating with the ancestors. Photograph: ©Steven Wade Adams, Eswatini 2024
African Spiritualism
Bob Forrester also shared his interesting observation of recurrent themes of shamanic practices around the world (e.g. sacred water, fire/smoke, chanting etc.) as well as some of the fundamental concepts of two realms as also fundamental to present-day religions.
Bob also noted four possible reasons that might explain these various recurrent elements around the world; coincidence, genetics, environment, or a shared ancient origin, evolving with the advancement of human consciousness. The latter is his favored explanation and is certainly an intriguing concept to ponder.
The practice of Shamanism in Southern Africa (and other places in the world) can involve the use of alcohol and/or other mind-altering or psychoactive substances as a further means to weaken the boundaries between the spirit world and the living. I had the opportunity to witness a healing ritual in Angola in 2022, where a Shaman of the Ovacuvale tribe consumed psychoactive materials as she worked to heal an older emaciated woman.
Shamanic healing ritual in western Angola. Photograph: ©Steven Wade Adams, Angola 2022.
Other Links between Spirituality and Creativity
While Bob’s expertise and theories focused on the origins of spirituality, I became fascinated with how the development of the creative brain may have led to the ability to assign significance to feelings of spirituality.
Somewhat serendipitously, a filmmaking mentor and friend Tom Donohue, recently asked me to participate in a group he was leading on filmmaking using the structure of the best-selling self-help book for artists known as “The Artists Way” by Julia Cameron.
A central tenet of Julia Camerons approach is the inextricable connection between spirituality and creativity. So many expressions of early human activity seem to connect spirituality with creative endeavors. In addition to the rock art mentioned above, you might include music, dance, physical adornment, and storytelling. All of these (interrelated) creative efforts likely emerged at a similar time as our brains and our brain’s capacity began a period of significant expansion of the frontal cortex.
If you follow this line of argument, then not only did our direct ancestors emerge from the African continent with spiritual awareness but this further advanced the creativity of our species and development of more complex human art forms.
Dancing is one of many creative human activities with direct ties to spirituality. Photograph: ©Steven Wade Adams, South Africa , 2024
Body adornments are a form of creativity that is often linked to the spirit realm. Photograph: ©Steven Wade Adams, Ethiopia , 2017.
The Evolution of Storytelling
As the human capacity for creativity and “explaining” our spirituality expanded, it is not hard to imagine that this led to the early origins of storytelling itself. The more interesting and fantastical the stories, the more captivated the audiences would likely have been and perhaps the more status assigned to the teller. As we are aware, modern societies continue to place high value on adept storytellers.
Storytelling in early humans likely originated as a means of communication, enabling individuals to convey experiences, share knowledge, and build social bonds within groups. As primitive societies formed, narratives emerged around communal activities such as hunting, gathering, and rituals.
These stories often reflected the environmental challenges faced by early humans and served to preserve cultural values and collective memories. Through oral traditions, important life lessons and survival strategies were passed down through generations, fostering a sense of identity and continuity among communities.
It seems reasonable that the way we humans create and also how we respond to how stories are told evolved from very early origins around the fire as early humans struggled to make sense of a complex and frightening world.
Fellow early humans would also have been fascinated to hear about fantastical dreams and visions experienced by others as well as seek understanding of their own dreams. As these stories were told and retold they were likely embellished to become legends. Such stories would also provide a means to provide an oral history, but lacking a means to fact check or ensure consistency over time, along with a human need to maintain the listener’s interest, further variation and embellishment seems probable. Its not hard to imagine how this led to the creation of great myths and legends.
The best storytellers would keep their audience’s attention and likely extract social power and influence. Related symbols of “understanding” would be similar to today. The role of special clothing and body adornments, music and singing in spiritual practice as well as other forms of art have been closely linked to spirituality and religion through the ages.
Over time, storytelling evolved into a fundamental element of human culture, encompassing myths, legends, and the arts, ultimately shaping the way people interpret their world and connect with one another. The construction of storytelling has remained remarkably similar over recorded history.
When we contemplate the classic types of conflict in literature and other artistic forms through the ages (person vs. nature, person vs destiny, person vs self, etc.), these would have been relevant and interesting to the earliest people as it is today. From this point of view, there is something not only universal but also ancient in their origin as they appeal to us as either creators or listeners through millennia.
Candles are commonly used to signify light from the spiritual world and/or light the way for the spirits. This image was taken after a consultation with a spiritual healer (Sangoma) in South Africa. Photograph: ©Steven Wade Adams, South Africa, 2024
An Unprovable but Fascinating Theory on the Origins of Spirituality and Creativity
While spirituality is considered a universal component across cultures in anthropology, its exact origin and what contributed to it are largely (or entirely) unprovable. Nonetheless, it is fascinating to speculate how these may have advanced as did the cognitive function of early human species in an attempt to explain the unexplainable.
Dancing Zulu maidens in Kwazulu-Natal participate in the annual traditional Reed Dance. Facial, hair and body adornments are a form of creativity that is found across cultures and is often provided spiritual meaning. Photograph: ©Steven Wade Adams, South Africa 2024
One dimension that Bob did not speak about is another important human dimension that since occurred to me as another critical contributor in this evolution of spirituality is the basic social nature or our species. While social structures are certainly not unique to humans, the spiritual connection between us almost certain is. The strength of these connections in groups and communities, may also have played (as it does today) a key role in spiritual practice.
Tens of thousands of years later we are all still seeking to understand our dreams, our visions, our spiritual identity as well as our place with one another within our local and global communities. It is my hope that for all of the forces that seek to divide us, that we can remind ourselves of our common origins, our shared need for connection and compassion. Despite what we perceive as significant differences in spiritual practice, they likely share common foundational evolutionary origins, and taken as a whole, represent only minor variations of a much larger and more beautiful theme of humanity.
Music and dancing is a universal and uniquely human activity. Photograph: ©Steven Wade Adams, Angola , 2022
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