Tem

22/23 MAR

Sosis, "The Adaptive Value of Religion"

• How do you explain aspects of religious behavior that appear to be madness?

• Early anthropology. negative, Malinowski's view, couldn't explain ritual

• Behavior ecology of religion: typical question: Why does particular behaviors persist in a human population?

• "Optimal foraging theory" suggests we optimize our energy exchanges with an environment (in food sourcing for example). Likewise, maybe other behaviors....
• Related hard to explain behavior in nature: Stotting behavior

• What are religious rituals?

• rituals are a form of communication of commitment to both in group and out group members. 168
• "costly signal theory" (Zahavi, explaining odd behaviors like stotting and rattling, warning signals)
• study of relationship between costly requirements and longevity of communes in 19thc US.
• higher commitment in a group is related to realizing group goals. Applied to religion. . .
• It's possible that a religion will fail by not imposing costly requirements. note on Vatican II p. 170.
• religious vs. secular kibbutzim

• Shekel game research

• game and results
• gender diffs: note that wisdom cultures do not necessarily make similar opportunities available to all genders. implications?

• "Dark side" of promoting cooperation by promoting costly commitments

• [some of the commitments are problematic for some members of the community]
• may promote inter-group conflict

Wilson, David Sloan. "Chapter 4: The Secular Utility of Religion: historical examples"

• Some background on this Wilson: group selection advocate
• Theoretical claim: The demise of group selection theories keeps us from seeing the secular utility of religion in a way similar to Darwin's inability to see evidence for glaciers in absence of theory of glaciation.

• Example 1: Water Temple System in Bali

• water religion and irrigation; the "subak" 127, egalitarian as hunter/gathers often are, but the water system involves hierarchy. problem of management of a common good. tragedy of the commons... note that the agricultural system was separate from politics. rare.
• religious figures "Jero Gde" function also as ag extention agents.
• system requirements, p. 127-8. justice issues as well as practical problems.
• Neither Dutch colonists nor Green improved on Balinese water system. Lansing simluation to show efficiency of model. 130

• Example 2: Judaism

• recalls his speculative theses that golden rule and 10 commandments are almost certainly adaptive for groups.
• Key features of Judaism: injunction to multiply and two sets of rules: one for intra group interaction, the other for out group policy.
• conflicting advice: ethics of host; ethics of warrior.
• assessment: in group / out group morality is hypocritical relative to our current ideals, but we need to look at it to see the mechanisms of selection at work among groups and cultures.
• isolation mechanisms within Judaism: 136-7. Including gene-culture effects from cultural selection.
• this example suggests that cultural isolation mechanisms of religion might be part of the mechanism for group effectiveness. (such as endogamy, required conversion)
• note at 138: very concerned not to play into anti-Semitic criticism of Jews. Groups really do compete in different ways.
• literary example, Isaac Singer: image of cultural disgust.

• Example 3: Early Christianity

• Stark's population theory of Christianity: at 40% per decade, on the high end of the range (like periods in contemporary Mormonism).
• Basic theory, p. 148: Early Christianity became attractive to Jews and Gentiles because it offered continuity with Judaism and reformed rules that made inter-ethnic religion possible. Empirical evidence that growth of early Christianity was more influenced by Judaism than Roman culture. 149: growth of christianity correlates with jewish influence, negatively with Roman.
• Christianity offered a competitive alternative to the social disorganization of life in many Roman cities, such as Antioch. cultural practices like high female infanticide; high ratio of males, cultural values about status and lineage; all cited as dysfunctional at this time and opposed by early Christians.
• Functioned like "cells" to isolate social networks of people willing to submit to moral rules and observances. high level of care during outbreaks of illness; differential survival. quote at 154 and 155 (mentioin perputua and felicitas)