Moralistic Gods and Social Complexity: A Brief History of the Problem

Abstract

A cluster of persistent and contentious questions in the scientific study of religion concern when and why so-called “moralistic traditions” developed and how they have shaped human relationships. Is there an association between moralistic gods and the size and/or complexity of the society that might worship them? How cross-culturally ubiquitous are such traditions? Are people more willing to engage in cooperative behavior when they believe their god cares about morality? This chapter focuses on how these questions have arisen and how generations of researchers have struggled to address them. We first briefly examine the intellectual history of the problem, pointing to some of the troubling aspects of early observations of traditional societies and subsequent anthropological positions. We then address how early observations of small-scale peoples have populated cross-cultural resources that have informed and driven contemporary empirical projects. We finish by pointing to ways in which we might go about ensuring that the conversation continues with clarity and consistency.

Moralistic supernatural punishment is probably not associated with social complexity

“…With the advent of more intensive fieldwork, however, we find that the tide dramatically shifted. For example, Malinowski (1992) contested the idea that gods in small-scale societies lack moralistic concerns and argues that traditional religion and morality are inextricably linked (for discussion, see Purzycki and McKay, 2022). Much later, Evans-Pritchard (1965) characterized the idea that traditional populations lack morally concerned gods as a myth and treated the ideas as moribund.…”

“…As not reported in the material and reports deny the presence of an MHG are conflated, this particular code is self-evidently problematic. Considering there are also missing values in this data, we are left with wondering what the differences between absent, not reported in the materials, and simply uncoded data (seePurzycki and McKay, 2022;Purzycki and Watts, 2018, for further critique of this coding issue). The documentation of the SCCS, however, is unclear about how absent/not reported high god data points differ from the 19 missing values(Murdock and White, 2006).5 Note that the criteria for MHGs do not include all of the common criteria for characterizing moralizing "Big Gods," such as omniscience or a wide scope of gods' concerns.6 As we will discuss further, its similarity to the Christian God might even reflect the historical contexts that shaped the discourse around moralizing gods in the twentieth century (cf Purzycki and McKay, 2022).…”

Gods are watching and so what? Moralistic supernatural punishment across 15 cultures

“…Scholars of religion have long contemplated how religious appeals, beliefs and rituals are implicated in human cooperation (Durkheim, 1912;Ellwood, 1918;Evans-Pritchard, 1965;Lang, 1909;Malinowski, 1936;Rappaport, 1968;Wallace, 1966; for recent reviews, see McKay and Whitehouse, 2014;Purzycki and McKay, 2023). Recent psychological and cultural evolutionary accounts of human sociality have proposed that beliefs about 'moralising' deitiesthat is, punitive and monitoring gods and spirits believed to be concerned with violations of inter-personal norms (Purzycki and McNamara, 2016) foster cooperative relationships (Johnson, 2016;Shariff and Norenzayan, 2007) and help societies increase in size and complexity (Norenzayan et al, 2016;Schloss and Murray, 2011).…”

“…Supernatural moral punishment and cooperation: A tour of the evidence A family of theories holds that belief in moralising deities facilitates cooperation through fear that moral norm violations are supernaturally monitored and sanctioned. In turn, by harnessing psychological systems responsible for cooperative behaviour, such beliefs are ostensibly one mechanism that can help resolve problems associated with collective action and cooperation (Schloss and Murray, 2011;Purzycki and McKay, 2023). As such, morally concerned gods in particular are posited to help scale up societies in response to social conflict (Caluori et al, 2020;Skali, 2017) and ecological threats (Hayden, 1987).…”

“…Boehm, 2008;Purzycki and McNamara, 2016;Rossano, 2007;Swanson, 1960) as well as recent individual-level ethnographic inquiries (e.g. Purzycki, 2011Purzycki, , 2013Purzycki, , 2016Purzycki et al, 2022c;Singh et al, 2021;Townsend et al, 2020) strongly indicate that notions of supernatural punishment of moral norm violations are common even in smaller-scale societies, calling into question the reliability of databases that suggest otherwise (Lightner et al, 2022;Purzycki and McKay, 2023).…”