OriginsNet

James Harrod, Ph.D. is a scholar specializing in prehistoric art, religion and semiotics.

He is the author of articles on the decipherment of Upper Paleolithic European protolanguage and Upper Paleolithic male and female spiritual transformation processes. He has also published on the origins of symbol and mind two million years ago as evidenced in the flaked pebble core technology of Homo rudolfensis/habilis.

In 1987 James Harrod founded and chaired the Prehistoric Religions Consultation Unit, the first program of the American Academy of Religion annual meeting devoted to prehistoric religions. In 1988 he received a research grant from the American Academy of Religion to study Middle and Early Paleolithic palaeoart in England, Netherlands, and Germany. In 1990, he studied paleoanthropology at Koobi Fora, Kenya; and in 1996, he was a member of the expedition surveying the site of Har Karkom in Israel, where he led a search for Paleolithic palaeoart. He was also an associate of the archaeologist Marija Gimbutas, who has led the way in decoding the religious iconography of the European Neolithic.

He has a doctorate in religion from Syracuse University with a focus on comparative mythology and ancient Greek religion; an MA in philosophical theology; and an MA in depth psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. He has studied shamanic trance postures with Felicitas Goodman and Michael Harner, kundalini and vipassana meditation, and Grof holotropic breathwork. He also has a private depth psychotherapy practice in Brunswick, Maine, and a consulting business in social services strategic planning and grantwriting.