A diffusionist deep dive tracing masked ritual from a single Levantine hearth—stone masks and plastered skulls—to a global grammar of spirit embodiment.
Diffusionism - Research Articles
The Bullroarer: A Global Marker of Cultural Diffusion and Male Initiation Ceremonies
How a simple whirled instrument traces the spread of male secret societies and ritual culture from the Late Paleolithic to the present.
Who Was Here First? Indigenous American Myths of Earlier Peoples
Across the Americas, Indigenous traditions recall ant-folk, giants, and shadow-people who occupied the land before humans arrived.
Men From the Sea: Myths, Skepticism, and the Return of Trans-Pacific Contact
Why colonial tales of giants, 20th-c. positivism, and new genome data all matter for the debate over pre-Columbian Polynesian–American contact.
The Bullroarer: A Worldwide Ritual Instrument and the Case for Ancient Cultural Diffusion
An anthropological examination of the bullroarer, arguing its global distribution and consistent ritual functions point to cultural diffusion from a common prehistoric origin.