>> Please show me the empirical evidence showing that rituals must be
>> based around the seasons -- either of the earth or man -- in order to be
>> effective.
The objections to these starting points have truly astounded me.
Because what these things are- the seasons, the menstrual cycle, the sky above, etc., are, and have been, and will probably continue to be, where we got gods from in the first place.
The empirical evidence is, um, Stonehendge... the pyramids... the Parthenon... that church around the corner....
Xmas... Easter... Hallowe'en... Carnaval....
I am here, memetics (whatever that is) in the way I am (whatever that is) because I want the answer, and this is my personal reason, I want the reason, I want to get into the head, of the first being that went into a cave and drew on the walls.
I minored in Anthropology in college, loved it, and see Cultural Anthropology, now more ravaged by scandal, to be a seed of Memetics- combining this with the Philosophy of Aesthetics, I see the two true 'soft' sciences. And the recent advances in Forensic Anthropology are exciting and wonderful things. The primate studies of behavior form another consilience with psychology and neuro-imaging.
The CoV, could, I suppose, become the first church of the real.