Spektor D.M. Metaphysics of the Cult and the Culture of 'Homo Numinosum'

Abstract: "Humanity" doesn't descend from heavens with the Holy Spirit but comes through real animals (ancestors of the mankind) led by instincts. Humanity developed as a result of the need to release from total domination of reflex reactions, on the one hand, and opportunities predetermined by their phenotype, on the other hand. These were the real conditions of creation of the first historical form of culture – the cult. Involvement in cult actions transformed our ancestor into human, consciousness being one of his attributes.  Reconstruction of the initial forms of cult is based on successive comparison of ritual practices with the sensuality genesis separating human from animal as a being with a completely different perception of the world and feelings. As a new form of experience, cult (of motives, values, and derived emotions) sets priorities for the relations above material communications (thus creating its own "virtuality") and is a result of the defensive instinct when man began to focus on community values (as the way to general survival) and was deprived of established mechanisms of behavior, and therefore had to be based on common reactions and community relations. 

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