Subsistence and the Evolution of Religion

Peoples, Hervey C.; Marlowe, Frank W.

doi:10.1007/s12110-012-9148-6

Cited by 154 publications

(78 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Previous cross-cultural studies have found a correlation between MHGs and a range of measures of social complexity [5,9,11], supporting both the BSP and MHG hypotheses. However, these studies are problematic for two reasons.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 61%

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Broad supernatural punishment but not moralizing high gods precede the evolution of political complexity in Austronesia

et al. 2015

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Supernatural belief presents an explanatory challenge to evolutionary theoristsit is both costly and prevalent. One influential functional explanation claims that the imagined threat of supernatural punishment can suppress selfishness and enhance cooperation. Specifically, morally concerned supreme deities or 'moralizing high gods' have been argued to reduce free-riding in large social groups, enabling believers to build the kind of complex societies that define modern humanity. Previous cross-cultural studies claiming to support the MHG hypothesis rely on correlational analyses only and do not correct for the statistical non-independence of sampled cultures. Here we use a Bayesian phylogenetic approach with a sample of 96 Austronesian cultures to test the MHG hypothesis as well as an alternative supernatural punishment hypothesis that allows punishment by a broad range of moralizing agents. We find evidence that broad supernatural punishment drives political complexity, whereas MHGs follow political complexity. We suggest that the concept of MHGs diffused as part of a suite of traits arising from cultural exchange between complex societies. Our results show the power of phylogenetic methods to address long-standing debates about the origins and functions of religion in human society.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 61%

“…First, previous research has relied on standard correlational techniques that are unable to get at the direction of causality [5,9,11]. Second, previous rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org Proc.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Broad supernatural punishment but not moralizing high gods precede the evolution of political complexity in Austronesia

et al. 2015

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“…Although one possible explanation for these results is that MHGs facilitate social complexity, another is that social complexity makes cultures more likely to adopt MHGs. Second, these studies are ether based on a single dataset called the Ethnographic Atlas or a subset of this dataset known as the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample (17,18,35,38). The MHGs in these datasets are almost all derived from the closely related family of Abrahamic religions-Christianity, Judaism, and Islam (37).…”

Section: Big(ish) Data and Need For Computational Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cultural macroevolution matters

Gray

Watts

2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Evolutionary thinking can be applied to both cultural microevolution and macroevolution. However, much of the current literature focuses on cultural microevolution. In this article, we argue that the growing availability of large cross-cultural datasets facilitates the use of computational methods derived from evolutionary biology to answer broad-scale questions about the major transitions in human social organization. Biological methods can be extended to human cultural evolution. We illustrate this argument with examples drawn from our recent work on the roles of Big Gods and ritual human sacrifice in the evolution of large, stratified societies. These analyses show that, although the presence of Big Gods is correlated with the evolution of political complexity, in Austronesian cultures at least, they do not play a causal role in ratcheting up political complexity. In contrast, ritual human sacrifice does play a causal role in promoting and sustaining the evolution of stratified societies by maintaining and legitimizing the power of elites. We briefly discuss some common objections to the application of phylogenetic modeling to cultural evolution and argue that the use of these methods does not require a commitment to either gene-like cultural inheritance or to the view that cultures are like vertebrate species. We conclude that the careful application of these methods can substantially enhance the prospects of an evolutionary science of human history. cultural evolution | macroevolution | phylogenetics | religion | Big Gods D arwin's On the Origin of the Species ends with the poetic phrase, "From so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved" (1). The central challenge for evolutionary biology is to explain this diversity of endless forms. Evolutionary biologists tackle this task by studying both microevolution (changes in gene frequency within a population) and macroevolution (changes between species over much longer time periods). The aim is to have a mechanistic understanding of the evolution of biological diversity that integrates microlevel processes and macrolevel patterns. This work examines ways in which evolutionary thinking and methods can be extended into the realm of culture, extending the scope of biology to include questions that have traditionally been restricted to the humanities and social sciences. Human cultures also display a vast variety of most beautiful and most wonderful forms. We speak ∼7,000 different languages, engage in hundreds of different religious practices, build many different types of houses, exploit different resources for subsistence, use numerous different kinship systems, and abide by a striking array of marital, sexual, and child-rearing norms (2). The cultural processes that produce such striking cultural diversity must be explained. The field of cultural evolution is currently beginning to blossom (Fig. 1). There is a new cultural evolution society, a proposed journal, and an inaugural conference (3). However,...

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“…We consider the following covariates in our models, all positively correlated with a belief in moralizing high gods: political complexity (17), practice of agriculture (17), and recognition of rights to movable property, as measured by the practice of animal husbandry (9,16). Our analysis is based on a global cross-cultural sample of 583 human societies (36,37) that occupy a range of different habitats and are exposed to a wide array of environmental conditions ( Fig.…”

Section: Significancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In particular, religious beliefs are thought to be a powerful mechanism for the enforcement of social rules (12)(13)(14)(15). In support of these ideas, comparative studies have shown that a belief in moralizing high gods-defined as supernatural beings believed to have created or govern all reality, intervene in human affairs, and enforce or support human morality (7)-tends to be more prevalent among societies that recognize rights to movable property (9,16), as well as in those that exhibit higher levels of political complexity (17), subsistence productivity (17), and norm compliance (18). In addition, psychological experiments have found that moralizing high god concepts can reduce levels of cheating (14) and increase willingness to be fair (19) and to cooperate (13).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The ecology of religious beliefs

Botero

Gardner

Kirby

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

182

159

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Although ecological forces are known to shape the expression of sociality across a broad range of biological taxa, their role in shaping human behavior is currently disputed. Both comparative and experimental evidence indicate that beliefs in moralizing high gods promote cooperation among humans, a behavioral attribute known to correlate with environmental harshness in nonhuman animals. Here we combine fine-grained bioclimatic data with the latest statistical tools from ecology and the social sciences to evaluate the potential effects of environmental forces, language history, and culture on the global distribution of belief in moralizing high gods (n = 583 societies). After simultaneously accounting for potential nonindependence among societies because of shared ancestry and cultural diffusion, we find that these beliefs are more prevalent among societies that inhabit poorer environments and are more prone to ecological duress. In addition, we find that these beliefs are more likely in politically complex societies that recognize rights to movable property. Overall, our multimodel inference approach predicts the global distribution of beliefs in moralizing high gods with an accuracy of 91%, and estimates the relative importance of different potential mechanisms by which this spatial pattern may have arisen. The emerging picture is neither one of pure cultural transmission nor of simple ecological determinism, but rather a complex mixture of social, cultural, and environmental influences. Our methods and findings provide a blueprint for how the increasing wealth of ecological, linguistic, and historical data can be leveraged to understand the forces that have shaped the behavior of our own species.religion | cultural evolution | environmental effects | ecological risk | supernatural beliefs

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Subsistence and the Evolution of Religion

Cited by 154 publications

References 33 publications

Broad supernatural punishment but not moralizing high gods precede the evolution of political complexity in Austronesia

Broad supernatural punishment but not moralizing high gods precede the evolution of political complexity in Austronesia

Cultural macroevolution matters

The ecology of religious beliefs

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