Religion part 1

What is the cultural evolutionary framework?

The approach to evolutionary religion

The Origins of Religion

• Evolutions always build from conserved processes and repurposing things that are already there

• Great apes: chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans were present

• common ancestor with humans lived roughly 5-7 million years BP

Our primate and great ancestors were…

arboreal (clung on to trees)

When did earth start experiencing climate changes?

5 million years ago

What did Brian Hayden argue about the environment?

You can’t understand evolution without looking at the environment

Ecological approach to religion

Stimulated by ecological change (forests became sparse and more full)

What was the origin of the homogenous?

The Savannah (that was packed with dangerous wild cats)

Early homogenous in the Savannah

Early species that led to homogenous had to maneuver and adapt traits in order to persist in the environment

Australopithecus

• the first primate to NOT live full time on trees

• positioning of the posture and feet showed much of the species walking by foot (bipedalism)

Incipient human features in great apes

hunting may have been one of our first traits

Advantages of bipedalism

• freeing the hands from the burden of locomotion

• carrying food to shelter

• throwing projectiles

• running - escaping predators

• endurance

• vision, ability to see everything

• energy efficient - human walking is highly effective and gives us less exposure to the sun

The Homo Habilis

• First seen as human/some sort of ape

• Known as the Tool Maker (of stones and beds)

• Used OLDOWAN industry stone tools

What is so significant about tools?

• tools are the beginning of culture

• tools allow species to extract more energy from the environment

Definition of culture

A transmission of information that is NOT in our genes

Gene-culture co-evolution

when your two systems of culture and genes collaborate

Homo Erectus

• first member of our lineage

• most successful human to have lived

• used ACHEULEAN industry tools

• brain of homo erectus is MUCH bigger than homo habilis

• have the ability to plan ahead with tools

• used okur and engraved pseudodon shells which showed symbolic meaning (beginning of religion)

What is so significant about the Homo Erectus using fire?

• they controlled fire in a sustained way

• can cook with fire and use their acheulean tools to help

• shows gene-culture co-evolution

• efficient tools and control of fire led to the shrinking of our intestine which gave us more energy for developing a larger brain

Social Brain Hypothesis

The demands of living in highly complex social groups led to increased pressure in growing brains

Cultural brain hypothesis

Pressure to excel in retaining and processing cultural info has transformed our brains and genes (gene culture coevolution)

Early born babies

• large brains require an evolutionary compromise, which forced hominid babies to be born prematurely

• alloparenting (communal mothering) was necessary to nurture the premature babies

Give two examples of gene-culture coevolution

• use of tools to extract more energy from the environment

• use of fire that shrunk our digestive system and allowed for our brain to grow

What did Panksepp argue?

• Emotions are not secondary to cognition, they are primary

• without cognition, emotions would remain raw with no symbolic meaning

Upper Paleolithic Neanderthal people traits

• bones were more dense

• more muscle

• brain on average was bigger

• we have a 99.5% shared DNA with them

How did the Neanderthal people exhibit religious behavior?

through caves and animal bones

Neanderthal Burials

• due to their large brains, Neanderthals began to exhibit a discernible symbolic life

• this symbolic life together with complex social organization and sophisticated technologies such as stone tools, bows, spears, and rafts, have led many to hypothesize that neanderthals had an elementary form of language and possible religion

What was the big event that happened 50,000-30,000 years BP

The Upper Paleolithic Revolution/The Mind’s Big Bang

Why is the Upper Paleolithic Revolution so significant?

Something happened in the brain wiring that led to a more rich and sophisticated human brain —> behaviorally modern and symbolic life

Homo Symbolicus Language

• human language is the most complex expression of life

• enabled unprecedented collective learning and efficient cultural transmission

• enabled future planning and second order intentionally

• allowed humans to create shared communal narratives oriented towards supernatural agents —> evolutionary advantages

The co-evolution of humanity and religion

• humans and religion coevolve TOGETHER

• flexibility of language enables rapid interpretation and adaptation to shifting environmental conditions

• allowed CULTURE to change

Mentalizing

knowing that others have their own thoughts

Animism

• pervasive, no group associated with it

• nature is animated with some sort of spirit

Paleolithic Hunter Gatherer Basic Characters

• groups of 20-150 people

• extensive living, moving over large areas to take advantage of resources

• relative egalitarianism, communal ownership

• resource scarcity, lack of long term storage

• technology, stone tools

• oral traditions

Hunter Gatherer Religion

• based on 2 aspects: animism and shamanism

• myth vs ritual

• all religions have a story

Complex Ritual Behavior

• ritual performance broadens and tightens social ties, building solidarity in human groups

• rital consolidates group emotions by linking those emotions to central symbols, thereby forming the basis of beliefs, morality, and culture

• religious rituals were the first human institution that evolved to consolidate relationships within and between groups

• ritual behavior improves group coordination

• frames, highlights, and reaffirms core information and myths, consolidates collective memory

• studies show that ritual alleviates anxiety, especially in challenging environments

Human Institution

streamlines human behavior into something coherent

Basic Timeline

• 5-4 million years ago: Stone used as tools, Bipedalism, Australopithecus

• 3.4-2.5 million years ago: Oldowan stone tools made, lower paleolithic, Homo Habilis

• 1.8-1.5 million years ago: Acheulean tools and fire, middle paleolithic, Homo Erectus

• 0.5-0.25 million years ago: Mode 3 stone tools and language, middle paleolithic, anatomically modern Homo sapiens

• 50,000 BP: Diversification of tools and complex symbolic life, upper paleolithic revolution, behaviorally modern homo sapiens

Signal Theory

when people signal their commitment and devotion to their religious community

Coordinated movement and bonding

• ritual supports an increase in oxytocin, bonding, dopamine

• religion can’t be reduced to a set of propositions, general human capacity for religious experience that is actualized differently in different religions

Experiential-expressive view

A deep structure of religious experience exists generally in the human psyche

• particular religions are the surface manifestations of this deep pan-human experiential capacity

What did Emile Durkheim say?

• Rituals are where the magic happens —> collective effervescence

• in contact with supernatural spirits, experiencing God

Shamanism

• based on oral traditions

• form of religious practice most associated with hunter gatherer societies

• connects human beings to a spirit (ancestors, environment, locals)

• use of a drum to make a gateway into the supernatural world - become one entity

• early shamanistic religions were animistic —> world infused with spirit

Major Functions of the Shaman

• healing of the sick

• presenting the spirits and anchors with offerings and consulting them regarding communal problems

• detecting the availability of crucial resources through divination

• guiding the souls of the dead to their new destination, blessing, and cursing

• the shaman is often a repository of sacred knowledge, both secretive and public

Possible advantages of entering an altered state of consciousness

• frequency of ecstatic and trance experiences suggests that humans are biologically adapted to enter altered states of consciousness

• according to some scholars, entering the “brilliance spectrum” through trance increases our ability for novelty seeking

• ecstatic states lead to decentering of one’s personality, allowing new narratives of the self to emerge

Benefits of Religion

• Enhances cooperation

• Costly signaling, increases commitment

• defines group boundaries

• amplifies motivations and boosts confidence

• reduces anxiety of death

• confers mental and physical health benefits

• pro-natal

• regulates our ecologies

• open to human symbolic manipulation

• stabilizes cultural traditions

What is cultural complexity? 

• size of society 

• number and distinctiveness of its parts

• variety of specialized social roles 

• number of distinct social personalities 

• variety of mechanisms for organizing as a functioning whole 

Progression of cultural systems

• Bands

• Tribes

• Chiefdoms

• States

• Empires

What was going on during the Agricultural Revolution and Early Civilizations?

• learning how to domesticate (animals specifically)

• went from an extensive lifestyle to an intensive lifestyle

• energy necessary for life to complexify and differentiate

• start to create new and separate systems

Characteristics of the Agricultural Revolution

• food surpluses

• population growth 

• large-scale coordination (collective management) 

• specialization 

• trade

• centralization

Göbekli Tepe (Turkey)

• PRE-Agricultural Revolution

• construction began around 9,500 BCE

• around 200 pillars weighing up to 15 tons each

• no evidence of people living in that area, but thousands of animal bones, stone bowls, and goblets have been found

• world’s oldest, mass gathering of people over a considerable period of time, may have been a catalyst for domestication of plants

Energy and Complexity

• cultures that transfer more energy have more parts and subsystems 

• differentiation and more effective civilizations emerge

Fertile Crescent

• the Cradle of Civilization

• Mesopotamia

The Urban Revolution

• Cities are the nodes for interaction

• Stimulate transmission of energy, information, and matter

• urbanization: process by which agricultural village societies developed into socially, economically, and politically complex urban societies

Gordon Chiles 10 points about Urban Revolution

• large populations and large settlements 

• specialization and advanced division of labor 

• production of an agricultural surplus to fund governments

• monumental public arcitecture

• a ruling class

• writing

• exact and predictive sciences

• sophisticated art styles

• long distance trades

• tax collection 

Uruk

The World’s First Metropolis

The Metal Revolution (The Bronze Age)

• from stone to metal

• allowed for increase in specialized roles

• Bronze —> efficiency in agriculture, craftsmanship, warfare

• mainly monopolized by royal elites because it was expensive

• symbol of prestige and power

Exographic Revolution

• The most important information revolution

• humans moved from oral traditions to written culture

• population booms and urbanization creates pressures to devise more efficient communication systems

Inca Quipu

• communication system in knots within chords

• variety of colors, strings, and hundreds of knots tied toegther

• records data about trade, taxation, statistics, stories, poetry

Mesopotamian Cuneiform Writings

• Writing leads to the emergence of a new and powerful class of scribes

• enhance computational skills 

• records information on durable media

• standardization of thoughts and systematic knowledge 

• alters the way literate people think about the world

Ancient Egyptian Scribal Culture

• Hieroglyphics, demanding writing system

• roughly 1000 symbols to memorize, only a select few mastered this level

Babylonian Religion

• Babylonian empire under the reign of Hammurabi

• in the 18th century BCE Babylon becomes a regional empire, receiving tribute from neighboring city-states

Archaic State Religion

• religion and culture were joined with no distinction between church and state 

• religion geared towards maintaining cosmic and social order through ritual performance 

• religion becomes institutionalized and stratified 

• Archaic religions gave rise to a professional priesthood that was in charge of daily sacrifices, prayers, festivals, magic, interaction with spirits

• priests were not there to serve intimate needs

• top of hierarchy was a king/priest (ensi/lugal for mesopotamia) 

Henotheism

a complex hierarchy of gods with one supreme god at the top

Homologous universe

the divine hierarchy was a reflection of the civil hierarchy, believed by archaic religions

Social and Religious Hierarchies

• required powerful central administration

• more efficient control required strict hierarchies and division of labor and full time specialization

• in archaic religions, the earthly hierarchy reflects a higher divine hierarchy: as above so below

Divine Kingship and Fertility

• rules has exclusive relationship with top god 

• top ruler could be a divine gardener, symbolic tree in the temple 

• Ex. Pharaoh with agricultural tools  

Babylonian Religion and Civil Law

• Code of Hammurabi - very detailed rules about judicial procedures

Mesopotamian priesthood

• masters of divination

• watchmen priests supervising rituals

• purification against demons

• purification of temple

• sacrificial priests

• priests involved in music and songs

• priests in charge of astronomical observations and time keeping

• exorcists to cure the ill

Shaman Qualities 

• vessels through which supernaturals speak, medium

• found in loosely structured food gathering groups 

• most common ritual is a curing rite performed by 1-2 patients 

• ceremonies are non-calendrical and spontaneous 

Priest Qualities

• intermediate, not medium

• found in structured elaborate groups (agricultural)

• practitioners of codified standardized ritual, whole village, community, state

• take place on a calendrical basis

Astral Religions

• accurate calendars based on following the movements of celestial bodies were central to establishing order in agricultural archaic civilizations

• planets, moon, sun, constellations were believed to be powerful gods