Searching for old "soul"

Currently, a lot of populations utilize the term "soul" and thereby give some usage domination. It may appear that usage of soul has taken  a more central presence in recent modern literature of some populations. Yet, this was not always so as is found in the recordings of older societies. A good social anthropological query is has it always be so throughout known human populations.

A fairly reliable source toward that answer could come from ancient literature and records of ancient populations. This would involve going way back in history of population recordings. Even 2,000 years and more back one should consider such topics not widely recorded throughout life proceedings then.

One could consider the expression attempts before civilizations became established. Presently, most would point to cave art as depicting views of life's engagements.

In many of those, there is not found much explicit evidence amongst those recovered that imply activity pursued toward depicting a distinct nature like a "soul" amongst the presence of early populations, which were not unified but usually scattered about and not interconnected. 

When viewing ancient Chinese history of their many early societies and their records, there is not a consolidated expression toward cognizing a "soul". Throughout their development they expressed many kinds of conscious experiences of varied natures and tended to cultivate the plurality throughout their populations. Many experiences were from deep and sustained exploration of the natures of existence to very refined detailings and inner wisdoms. This lead to concepts of nature and interactions with it empirically and spiritually that accumulated in many expressions including Tao, I-Ching and others. Much prevalent expression also remained, as with many other world societies, as ancestor homage and veneration which is found through much of east Asia even today.

In India of old, there also is much exploration of essence of nature(s) but also accompanied by ancestor homage. Jains venerated the wisdoms of their sages as far back as 8,000 BCE. These are depicted as realizations in India. Even today, modern some modern doctrines have worked in the presence of many attributors toward final realizations. Much of these resolutions come about via introspective pursuits which one may have many variable experiences which evolve with the pursuer without fear or strong encoding.

This is even more prevalent in Buddhism which encourage one not to adhere to any experience. They are all fleeting and cannot be substantiated.

In investigations by many scholars, they tend to say that although there are many kinds of presences described in those times, no entity as "soul" is distinguished as distinctly special in processes to put it apart from other treatments.

When one closely looks at the early descriptions of a refined presence of the early societies, usually the treatments can infer that of a "superior", or "higher self" and sometimes as "evolved", etc. These claimed experiences attested by individuals, however, when in exegesis is fully followed the entity is found to be transitory and not ascribed to an absolute permanence status. These attestments are fairly often placed as a highest strata or level which may not have the intrinsic nature of total transcendence of worldly characteristics.

In modern science of neurology and related explorations, it is postulated the notion of why a soul could be is said to be organized in the parietal lobe of the brain which produces coherent coordination of the myriad of functions of the organism, and can also be extended to animals.

Note: the material herein is not necessarily a reflection of the entropy of values of current societies