Big Gods and big science: further reflections on theory, data, and analysis

Turchin, Peter; Whitehouse, Harvey; Larson, Jennifer; Cioni, Enrico; Reddish, Jenny; Hoyer, Daniel; Savage, Patrick E.; Covey, Alan; Baines, John; Altaweel, Mark; Anderson, Eugene N.; Bol, Peter K.; Brandl, Eva; Carballo, David M.; Feinman, Gary M.; Korotayev, Andrey; Kradin, Nikolay; Levine, Jill; Nugent, Selin E.; Squitieri, Andrea; Wallace, Vesna A.; François, Pieter

doi:10.1080/2153599x.2022.2065354

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 29 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The current data alone will not allow us to differentiate between neutral and functional mechanisms. For example, virtuosic accompanied solo singing may have spread along the Bronze Age trade networks and the Silk Routes in a neutral manner accompanying trade and other cultural exchange, and/or in a functional manner signalling and validating powerful hierarchies and the complex division of labour required to sustain large-scale trade networks (Lomax, 1968;Savage et al, 2021) as has been proposed for other aspects of culture such as religion (Norenzayan et al, 2016;Turchin et al, 2022). A reanalysis of proposed correlations between musical style and social structure supports Lomax's hypothesis of functional coevolution (Wood et al, 2022).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global musical diversity is largely independent of linguistic and genetic histories

Passmore¹,

Wood²,

Barbieri³

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Music is a universal, diverse cultural trait shaped by cultural and biological evolution. The extent to which global musical diversity traces the historical movements of people and their cultures is unresolved, with regional studies producing mixed results. Using a global musical dataset of 5,242 songs and 719 societies we identify five axes of musical diversity and show that musical traits contain geographically constrained patterns of between-society diversity. We pair musical data to genetic and linguistic datasets spanning 121 societies containing 981 songs, 1,296 individual genetic profiles, and 121 languages, showing that musical traditions contain similar, albeit weaker, patterns of spatial decay to linguistic diversity and genetic diffusion. However, the structure of musical similarity is different to linguistic or genetic histories. Musical relationships correlate with genetic and linguistic relationships within some regions, but not globally. Our results suggest that global musical traditions are distinct from non-musical aspects of human history.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global musical diversity is largely independent of linguistic and genetic histories

Passmore¹,

Wood²,

Barbieri³

et al. 2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Statistical analysis of a large sample of polities code in Seshat indicates that the sharpest rises in sociopolitical complexity in world history – driven by agricultural productivity and military technology – preceded the spread of new forms of doctrinal religiosity emphasizing beliefs in moralizing gods (Turchin et al. 2023 a ; 2023 b ; Whitehouse et al. 2023).…”

Section: Ritual and Group Cohesion In The Evolution Of Sociopolitical...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…But there has always been a dark side to the new moralizing religions, insofar as their emergence and spread in world history flow from more imperialistic forms of warfare associated with the evolution of military technologies and colonial expansion (Turchin et al. 2023 b ).…”

Section: Ritual and Group Cohesion In The Evolution Of Sociopolitical...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Rethinking ritual: how rituals made our world and how they could save it^★

Whitehouse

2023

Royal Anthropological Inst

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this Henry Myers Lecture, I summarize several decades of collaborative research on the role of ritual in group bonding and co‐operation, ranging from psychology experiments in university laboratories to field research among indigenous groups, and from surveys with armed revolutionaries to extended interviews with religious adherents. This body of work is helping to clarify the mechanisms by which social cohesion and prosocial behaviour are generated in a variety of groups, such as mothers experiencing traumatic births, football fans suffering defeat at crucial matches in Brazil and Australia, and Muslim fundamentalists in Indonesia contemplating insults to Islam in faraway conflicts. These findings also shed light on changes in ritual life from the palaeolithic to the first farmers and from archaic states to the first moralizing religions. In keeping with the forward‐looking theme of the 2022 RAI conference, I consider the implications of these findings for various practical problems facing humanity today, such as how to reduce crime and to prevent violent extremism and how to foster more inclusive forms of leadership and motivate action on environmental issues.

show abstract

Modeling Social Self-organization and Historical Dynamics: Global Phase Transitions

Malkov,

Grinin,

Grinin

et al. 2023

World-Systems Evolution and Global Futures

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Big Gods and big science: further reflections on theory, data, and analysis

Cited by 5 publications

References 29 publications

Global musical diversity is largely independent of linguistic and genetic histories

Global musical diversity is largely independent of linguistic and genetic histories

Rethinking ritual: how rituals made our world and how they could save it^★

Modeling Social Self-organization and Historical Dynamics: Global Phase Transitions

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Big Gods and big science: further reflections on theory, data, and analysis

Cited by 5 publications

References 29 publications

Global musical diversity is largely independent of linguistic and genetic histories

Global musical diversity is largely independent of linguistic and genetic histories

Rethinking ritual: how rituals made our world and how they could save it★

Modeling Social Self-organization and Historical Dynamics: Global Phase Transitions

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Rethinking ritual: how rituals made our world and how they could save it^★