INTEGRAL WORLD MAILING LIST http://www.integralworld.net Newsletter Nr. 621 Amsterdam, August 19th, 2016 THE EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS - An Essay Review of Up from Eden (Wilber, 1981) - MICHAEL WINKELMAN Because of Wilber's success in uniting diverse psychological theories and perspectives within the field of transpersonal psychology (e.g., Wilber 1977,1980), his esteem within the field of transpersonal psychology appears unequaled and his works are widely considered as basic texts. These earlier outstanding achievements have created a context within which Up From Eden has been uncritically accepted. Without an extensive background in paleontology, archaeology, anthropology, and cross-cultural psychology, as well as other fields necessary for a critical evaluation of this work, one is likely to be mislead into accepting Wilber's perspectives. This is reinforced by the fact that widespread ethnocentrisms found among Westerners and within Western psychology itself are found in Wilber's perspectives on the evolution of human consciousness. Wilber's theories expound perspectives central to Euroamerican culture and Western psychology, and contain biases and assumptions which are at variance with contemporary anthropological findings and perspectives on the prehistorical, historical and contemporary cross-cultural conditions of human consciousness and cognitive capacities. Read more: http://www.integralworld.net/winkelman1.html THE EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS? - Transpersonal Theories in Light of Cultural Relativism - MICHAEL WINKELMAN This paper examines some of the contemporary transpersonal contributions to understanding the evolution of human consciousness, but with a critical application of the perspectives of cultural relativism in understanding the nature of cross-cultural differences in consciousness. Certain transpersonal insights can be incorporated without accepting all of the assumptions of contemporary spokespeople. One issue addressed is how shamans' states of consciousness are related to the transpersonalists' stages of the evolution of human consciousness and those of the contemplative traditions. This paper calls into question the transpersonalist perspective that shamans and their states of consciousness should be considered less evolved than those of the Eastern mystical traditions. We can concede that some mystical states of consciousness may be more difficult to access and assess than typical shamanic states. But cultural relativism and culturally and ecologically specific adaptations preclude considering any particular adaptation superior to all others in all circumstances. The questions of what evolves, and what set of criteria allow us to place some levels as superior to others, are assessed from the perspective of cultural relativism as a constraint in evaluating the nature of differences. Future directions for theories of human cognitive and consciousness evolution are suggested by an examination of different understandings of meaning, and its potential as a basis for evolutionary stages. Read more: http://www.integralworld.net/winkelman2.html