Why am I passionate about this?

I first became intrigued by secret societies when a student who I worked with suggested that the French Upper Paleolithic painted caves might have been decorated and used by secret societies. I subsequently enlisted another student to study the spatial use of the paintings from this perspective. Combined with the observations of Robert Hare on the motivations of psychopaths and sociopaths to control others, I realized that secret societies plausibly constituted powerful forces promoting certain cultural changes that appeared later and continued into our own modern societies. I found the prospects for understanding our own cultures fascinating and wanted to document how this all came about in my own book.


I wrote

The Power of Ritual in Prehistory: Secret Societies and Origins of Social Complexity

By Brian D. Hayden,

Book cover of The Power of Ritual in Prehistory: Secret Societies and Origins of Social Complexity

What is my book about?

The Power of Ritual in Prehistory is the first book in nearly a century to deal with secret societies in…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of The Sacred and Profane

Brian D. Hayden Why did I love this book?

Mircea Eliade is one of the foremost historians of religion, The Sacred and the Profane is probably his most readable book. It clearly describes what traditional (oral) religions are like and how they differ from global (book) religions. Traditional religions provide critical background for understanding some contemporary ritual practices, but most importantly for me, traditional religions provide a context for understanding the emergence of secret societies. This will be a good read for anyone interested in traditional religions, whether native American, Australian, African, or pre-Christian Europe. I highly recommend it.

By Mircea Eliade,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Sacred and Profane as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In The Sacred and the Profane, Mircea Eliade observes that while contemporary people believe their world is entirely profane or secular, they still at times find themselves connected unconsciously to the memory of something sacred. It's this premise that both drives Eliade's exhaustive exploration of the sacred—as it has manifested in space, time, nature and the cosmos, and life itself—and buttresses his expansive view of the human experience.


Book cover of A Pueblo Social History: Kinship, Sodality, and Community in the Northern Southwest

Brian D. Hayden Why did I love this book?

This is a bit more of a technical archaeology book dealing with the ethnographic and archaeological Pueblo communities of the American Southwest. For those interested in secret societies, it deals extensively with the nature of Pueblo ritual organizations (sodalities) and deftly provides critiques of views that these were egalitarian communities and ritual organizations. In fact, he argues that some were among the most non-egalitarian societies in North America, beginning with the Chacoan culture about 1,000 years ago. Puebloan ritual organizations are prime examples of secret societies.

By John A. Ware,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Pueblo Social History as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In A Pueblo Social History, John Ware challenges modern anthropologists to break down the walls between archaeology and ethnography in order to obtain a more complete understanding of Pueblo prehistory in the American Southwest. This book stands or falls on two arguments. The first is Pueblo ethnographies by early scholars - including Cushing, Bandelier, and Fewkes who were simultaneously ethnographers and archaeologists and therefore incorporated origin stories, migration narratives, and other oral traditions along with lines of evidence such as artifacts and architecture - are more than speculative analogies. Pueblo ethnographies are end points on trajectories that preserve important information…


Book cover of Crystals in the Sky: An Intellectual Odyssey Involving Chumash Astronomy, Cosmology and Rock Art

Brian D. Hayden Why did I love this book?

Crystals in the Sky is a remarkable documentation of the astronomical knowledge developed by secret society members in the traditional native Chumash culture of southern California. In fact, the detailed astronomical knowledge was developed as part of the secret knowledge of the Antap Society (the Chumash secret society consisting of elite community members, the head of which was the "Sun Priest"). This provides an important clue to recognizing prehistoric secret societies since it explains why and how detailed astronomical knowledge developed, such as the astronomical observations involved in erecting Stonehenge. Similar astronomical knowledge occurred in other examples of secret societies in the world as well. 

By Travis Hudson, Ernest Underhay,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Crystals in the Sky as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Science of astronomy reflected in rock art.


Book cover of The Ethnology of Vanuatu:  An Early Twentieth Century Study

Brian D. Hayden Why did I love this book?

This remarkable work was first printed in German in 1923 and was only translated and published in English in 1996. It is largely concerned with the secret societies in the New Hebrides Islands of Southeast Asia. Speiser documents the lavish initiation rituals, the megalithic constructions that were part of the secret society ritual locations, the power of the ritual organizations and their leaders, the special burials of secret society leaders, the plastering of their skulls, and many other fascinating aspects of these secret societies. It is just one outstanding example among other ethnographies that document the special nature of secret societies including Philip Drucker's Kwakiutl Dancing Societies, Walter Hoffman's The Midewiwinor 'Grand Medicine Society' of the Ojibwa, and Amaury Talbot's In the Shadow of the Bush.

By Felix Speiser, D. Q. Stephenson (translator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Ethnology of Vanuatu as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Originally published in German in 1923, this work records much of Vanuatu's early material culture. It was the result of two years of field work by Swiss anthropologist Felix Speiser between 1920 and 1912.


Book cover of Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us

Brian D. Hayden Why did I love this book?

Robert Hare is a world authority on psychopaths and sociopaths. He explains how they avidly pursue their own self-interests and totally disregard the impacts on others. Psychopaths can be extremely personable, but they are very manipulative and totally lack empathy for others. They occur in all societies and gravitate to positions of control, power, and wealth in both business and politics. They relentlessly push for changes in society that benefit them the most. What I found most eye-opening and exciting about this book is that it helps explain many of the cultural developments in prehistory, including traditional secret societies, the leaders of which seem to fit Hare's descriptions to a remarkable degree. I use his insights extensively in the analyses in my own book.

By Robert D. Hare,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Without Conscience as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Most people are both repelled and intrigued by the images of cold-blooded, conscienceless murderers that increasingly populate our movies, television programs, and newspaper headlines. With their flagrant criminal violation of society's rules, serial killers like Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy are among the most dramatic examples of the psychopath. Individuals with this personality disorder are fully aware of the consequences of their actions and know the difference between right and wrong, yet they are terrifyingly self-centered, remorseless, and unable to care about the feelings of others. Perhaps most frightening, they often seem completely normal to unsuspecting targets--and they do…


Explore my book 😀

The Power of Ritual in Prehistory: Secret Societies and Origins of Social Complexity

By Brian D. Hayden,

Book cover of The Power of Ritual in Prehistory: Secret Societies and Origins of Social Complexity

What is my book about?

The Power of Ritual in Prehistory is the first book in nearly a century to deal with secret societies in traditional societies from a comparative perspective and the first to deal with secret societies from an archaeological perspective. It documents how secret societies worked, what motivated their organizers. what tactics they used to get what they wanted, and the kinds of material remains that they left in the archaeological record. The painted caves of the Ice Age were probably made and used by secret societies as well as monuments like Stonehenge. Hayden argues that these early secret societies were one of the key means of establishing political control that led to chiefdoms, states, and world religions. The conclusions will be eye-opening for many.

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The Bloomsbury Photographs

By Maggie Humm,

Book cover of The Bloomsbury Photographs

Maggie Humm Author Of Radical Woman: Gwen John & Rodin

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Woolfian Gym devotee World-traveller

Maggie's 3 favorite reads in 2023

What is my book about?

An enthralling portrait of the Bloomsbury Group’s key figures told through a rich collection of intimate photographs. Photography framed the world of the Bloomsbury Group. The thousands of photographs surviving in albums kept by Virginia Woolf, Vanessa Bell, Dora Carrington, and Lytton Strachey, among others, today offer us a private insight into their lives.

Maggie Humm brings together a curated selection of these photographs to offer us a fresh portrait of the Bloomsbury Group, showing them in a new, domestic intimacy. She brings to life the texture of Bloomsbury: their pastimes, children, clothes, houses, servants, pets, and holidays.

The Bloomsbury…

The Bloomsbury Photographs

By Maggie Humm,

What is this book about?

An enthralling portrait of the Bloomsbury Group's key figures told through a rich collection of intimate photographs

Photography framed the world of the Bloomsbury Group. The thousands of photographs surviving in albums kept by Virginia Woolf, Vanessa Bell, Dora Carrington, and Lytton Strachey, among others, today offer us a private insight into their lives.

Maggie Humm brings together a curated selection of these photographs to offer us a fresh portrait of the Bloomsbury Group, showing them in a new, domestic intimacy. She brings to life the texture of Bloomsbury: their pastimes, children, clothes, houses, servants, pets, holidays. Several photographs are…


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