There are a number of scholars who claim that “religion” evolved as an adaptation. What kind of adaptation? A group level adaptation. The story usually goes like this: at some unknown time during the middle or upper Paleolithic, certain groups of hominins developed proto-religious beliefs. These beliefs, which are rarely if ever specified, somehow gave [...]
Tags:altruism·baboons·chimpanzees·cohesion·competition·cooperation·David Sloan Wilson·ecology·evolution of religion·foraging unit·group agonism·group level selection·group size·hominids·hominins·hunter-gatherers·inclusive fitness·intergroup competition·Joseph Bulbulia·kinship·language·Matt Rossano·Nicholas Wade·Paleolithic·primates·Richard Sosis·ritual·technology·tools
Over at Archaeology News, Jasmyne Pendragon (gotta love that name!) has posted the first and second installments of a three part series on “The Purpose of Aztec Blood Rituals.” Helpfully, the articles contain numerous citations and complete references. In part one, Pendragon briefly sets the historical stage before laying out the details of Aztec beliefs:
The [...]
Tags:Aztec Indians·Aztec sacrifice·Aztecs·blood·blood rituals·bloodletting·bloodlust·cannibalism·conquest·ecology·economy·emic·empire·etic·Jasmyne Pendragon·Valley of Mexico
Over at the Atlantic, Kenneth Brower has written a superb article on the brilliant iconoclast and physicist Freeman Dyson. He undoubtedly qualifies as a genius and one of the world’s leading scientists, which makes his anti-position on global warming either puzzling or quixotic.
One explanation for Dyson’s contrarian stance is that he sees environmentalists as religionists [...]
Tags:Avatar·David Brower·ecology·environmentalism·Ernesto Zedillo·Freeman Dyson·Gaia Hypothesis·global warming·James Lovelock·Kenneth Brower·nature worship·Sierra Club·Vatican·William Nordhaus
There have been many articles over the past week reporting that an unusually large group (150 members) of chimpanzees in Kibale National Park, Uganda has been engaging in systematic territorial expansion by attacking and killing neighboring groups. The Nature article notes that this is “cooperative behavior” and then quotes from the New York Times story:
These [...]
Tags:aggression·Blackfoot·Cheyenne·chimpanzees·chimps·city-states·cohesion·Comanche·cooperation·Cree·Crow·David Sloan Wilson·ecology·Egypt·Flathead·foragers·Gros Ventre·group level selection·Kibale National Park·kinship·Kiowa·Lakota·Levant·Matt Rossano·Mesopotamia·Nicholas Wade·Plains Indians·power·religion·religious warfare·Sarsi·shamans·Shoshoni·territoriality·The Faith Instinct·war
