Civilizations and world religions

1
Civilizations and world religions

• 1. Lecture
• The framework of the subject
• phenomena and evolutionary theory of
  ethnocentrism

2
F. Fukuyama The end of history thesis

• We may wittnessing the end of history as such
  that is the end point of mankinds ideological
  evolution and the universalization of Western
  liberal democracy as the final form of human
  government. ... Some conflicts may happan in
  places in the Third World, but the global
  conflict is over and not just in EuropeThe war
  of ideas is at an end also. Believers in
  Marxist-Leninism may still exist in places like
  Managua, Pyongyang, and Cambridge, Massachusetts,
  but overall liberal democracy has triumphed. The
  future will be devoted not to great exhilarating
  struggles over ideas but rather to resolving
  mundane economic and technical problems. It will
  all be rather boring.
• F. Fukuyama

3
S. Huntington The clash of civilization thesis

• There are two important theme of the future
  First, the crucial impact of population growth on
  instability and balance of power. The second,
  clashes of civilizations are the greatest threats
  to world peace, and an international order based
  on civilizations is the safeguard against world
  war.
• The civilizations will have to learn to live side
  by side in peaceful interexchange, learning from
  each others history and ideals, and art and
  culture , mutually enriching each others lives.
  The alternative , in this overcrowed little world
  is, misunderstanding, tension, clash, and
  catastrophe.

4
What gives the particular importance of these
topics?

• First of all, we should raise three basic
  questions and find the proper answers to them
• 1st question what makes our world move?
• 2nd question what or who are the subjects of the
  development?
• 3rd question should one expect a radical or
  profound change in all of this?
• In this context the collective identity and the
  changes of collective identity in the history has
  a special importance.
• These questions could be analysed from several
  points of view
• What is a territorial or regional organisation
  (state, nation) like?
• What is a spiritual (ideological) organisation
  (e.g. a religion) like?
• What is a social organisation on the basis of a
  life-programme (culture, values)?

5
The general framework-modell of the lectures
Nations, states and communities
Spiritual communities
Civilizations
Religions
Ethnocentrism
Territorial organizations
Spiritual organizations
Culture
Life-programme- organizations
Values
6
Assessment process
Obligatory literature Civilizations and
world-religions and the History of political
ideas ppt-presentations on the web-page
www.marosan.com Recommended literature Marosán
György. (2006) Hogyan készül a történelem?
Money-Plan kft The course implies an exam. There
are two components of the mark an essay and a
written exam. If someone participates at least 3
lectures from the 5, and writes an acceptable
essay at home, then he or she could receive a
mark after his or her essay, (that is no written
exam needed then). When someone does not
participate enough lectures, and/or his or her
essay is not acceptable or is not good enough,
then he or she must make a written exam too. The
topic/theme of the essay must be in a connection
with the subject matter of the course, and it
should be an analysis of a definite, designed
topic, or movie. The essay must be of 2600 words
long, the dead-line is 17. december, 2012.
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Topics and treatments of essays

• Everybody should write two essays one from
  Civilizations and World-religions and another
  from History of Political Ideas.
• The topic of the first essay one should watch a
  film, (which is set in the case of each student
  individually), then write an essay concerning the
  topic or theme of the movie, (perhaps a
  recommendation of 20 lines at the end of the
  essay).
• The topic of the second essay the decisive
  events of 21st century on the basis of articles
  and news downloaded from the internet. The
  student must choose 5 news, events or articles,
  and write an essay on its ground.
• Both essays should be unbiassed, objective,
  multisided.

8
Movie-titles.Possible themes for essay

• Ütközések (USA)
• Hullám (N)
• Ajami (Izraeli film)
• Bader Meinhoff csoport (N)
• Eper és vér (USA)
• Michael Collins (USA)
• Aki szelet vet (USA)
• Az Én 20. századom (M)
• Az összeesküvés (Wansee-i konferencia (USA)
• Megfoghatatlan. (Il Divó) Andreotti film (O)
• Bukás (N)
• A kelet, az kelet. (A)
• Lövés utána csend. (N)
• Hotel Ruanda. (USA)
• Milk (homoszexuális politikusról) (USA)
• Hideg napok (M)
• Jó éjszakát, jó szerencsét. (USA)
• Vera Drake (A abortusz)
• Más ember élete (N)

1. 141 perc a Befejezetlen mondatból. (M Déri
   könyv)
2. 20 óra Sánta Ferenc film
3. Márvány ember (L)
4. A nemzet színe-java. (USA)
5. Z, avagy egy politikai gyilkosság anatómiája
   (Francia- görög?)
6. Ítélet Nürnbergben (A)
7. Karmester (Szabó István)
8. Luther (N)
9. Makk Károly Szerelem,
10. McCharty korszakról szóló film
11. Hamisító (N vagy A)
12. Hamu és gyémánt (L)
13. A tanú (magyar)
14. Cséplo Gyuri (Schiffer P. )
15. Ámen (A helytartó - Hochut darab)
16. A csendes amerikai (angol?)
17. A háborúnak vége (F) Semprun könyvbol film
18. Agitátorok (az Optimistákból)
19. Tarkovszkij A tükör

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The points of view of the analysis of the film

• What is the movie about?
• What is its relationship to the particular,
  chosen topic (to Religions or History of
  Political Ideas)
• What is the message of the movie?
• What is its peculiar importance in relationship
  to the history of 20th and 21st century?
• Does it have a message in regard of nowadays
  Hungary?
• Which opposite opinions are expressed in the
  movie?
• Which opposite opinions are present according to
  the topic in question in the contemporary
  Hungarian and/or global society?
• You could select the behavior, story or path of
  life of one or more characters, and you could
  present and analyse them in your essay.
• With what other movies and literary works could
  you compare the actual, chosen movie?
• What is the relationship of this film to the
  reality does it alter the latter drastically or
  rather mirrors it in a quite acceptable, adequate
  way?

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The points of view of the analysis concerning
the 21st century

• You should choose and download from the internet
  5 events, news, information in the last two
  years, which you consider to be decisive in
  regard of the history of 21st century.
• You should show and argue for why do you think
  these events to be decisive (rather than others).
• You should unfold their connections and internal
  relationship, and form your opinion what kind of
  future they foreshadow together.
• You should determine the possible message of this
  foreshadowed picture in regard of Europe, and in
  particular in regard of East-Europe.
• You should determine the possible message of this
  foreshadowed picture in regard of present
  Hungarian society.
• The essay must be approximately 8 pages, out of
  which one page should be about the analysis of
  these five tendencies.
• Deadline 17. December, 2012. Room, E II 22.

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An example

• At least 45 people, including women and children,
  have been killed in sectarian violence involving
  two ethnic groups over land row in Nigeria's
  northern state of Benue, police and witnesses
  said today. Those killed belong to Tiv ethnic
  group while the attackers were the Fulani people
  who are mostly cattle herdsmen, witnesses
  said.The Tiv, who are mostly farmers, also had
  some of their houses burnt down by the invaders.
  Ejike Alaribe, the police spokesman, said the
  number of people killed in Sunday's violence is
  16 but a witness who spoke to PTI on condition of
  anonymity insisted the number could not be less
  than 45, adding that the country's police is
  known for reducing casualty figures.The cause
  of the violence is related to land row between
  the two ethnic groups. The Fulanis, who are
  mostly Muslims, seek land for their cattle to
  graze while the Tivs want to preserve it for
  farming.Ethnic conflict over land are
  widespread in northern Nigeria. Most frequently,
  these occure in the country's north-central state
  of Plateau where Fulani herdsmen engage in
  clashes with the Biroms and other ethnic groups.

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Traditional approach of group behavior

• The traditional approach conceives group behavior
  as stemming from individual goals, motives and
  abilities. These assume that people work together
  with others because their insights, efforts or
  resources can help achieve attractive goals.
  People help each other because this indirectly
  benefits themselves, because of genetic overlap
  in families or because of ethnic and cultural
  similarities.
• The traditional approach focuses on
  individual-level disposition or concerns to
  explain group behavior is found across different
  disciplines.

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Social identity approach of group behavior

• 1970 H. Tajfel and J. Turner offer a new
  approach to understand group behavior social
  identity approach.
• Social identity approach try to understand social
  discrimination, aggression and conflict between
  different groups in society based on specific
  cognitive processes and social cognitions which
  is based on existence of a group self.
• The group self (instead of the individual self)
  can guide peoples behaviors when they realize
  they are part of group (cognitive
  self-definition) or what they are subjectively
  committed to the group (emotional
  self-involvement).
• Anyone can be considered as part of a number of
  different groups. These include groups people are
  born into (defined by gender, ethnicity, or
  nationality) as well as self-chosen affiliations
  for instance professional, religious or political
  groups.

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What does collective identity means?

• Ethnocentric-syndrome we trust our group
  without doubts, hesitation and unconditionally,
  and we are suspicious and distrustful in the
  direction of other groups, in the direction of
  the alien.
• Collective identity it is integrated into our
  mind that we identify ourselves with our
  communities. We conceive all the harms, threats
  and insults against our community as harms,
  threats and insults against ourselves.
• The centre of identity one form of identity
  emerges from all the other possible identities,
  and it governs and determines the role and
  function of every other.

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Definition of ethnocentrism

• Ethnocentrism Loyalty to the group, sacrifice
  for it, hatred and contempt for outsiders,
  brotherhood within, warlikeness without,
  Ethnocentrism is the technical name for this
  view of things in which one's own group is the
  center of everything, and all others are scaled
  and rated, (Sumner, Folkways 1906, 200713).
• It is the special emotional attitude, that though
  we smile at everybody when we are born, when we
  are wide awake we get to know that there are
  people whom we could trust, and there are other
  people whom we must be afraid of.
• When we grow up we learn to separate the world
  into two sharply different parts familiars,
  friends and acquaintances, whom we love and
  trust, and unacquainted, unfamiliar, alien
  people, whom we fear, and whom we should rather
  avoid.

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Why ethnocentrism is important?
The political processes are basically determined
by the relationship to alien people. In this
respect the changing of rejection of foreigners
and aliens in Hungary is an important factor.
17
Results of the Derex (Demand for Right-Wing
Extremism Index) report (2012)
Degree of demand towards far-right extremist
ideas
DEREX Cathegories Dimensions
Prejudicialness Anti-system attitude
Value-orientation Fear
Value-judgment General disposition Hungary
(Jobbik) 29 (11) 64 (48) 34 (20) 43 (32)
27 (19) 32 (16) 13 (7) Netherlands (Partij
voor ) 5 (1) 45 (16) 13 (5) 24 (10) 5
(3) 14 (3) 3 (1) France (Front Na) 21 (6) 58
(21) 35 (20) 42 (15) 19 (14) 28 (6) 9
(7) Belgium (Vlaams Belang 16 (3) 44 (24)
32 (13) 40 (10) 12 (7) 20 (4) 4 (2)
Denmark(Dansk Folkeparti) 2 (1) 38 (13)
13 (4) 21 (12) 3 (3) 9 (3) 1 (1)
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The general picture

• In Hungary (Autumn, 2010) the 48 percent of 16
  years and above old population is extremely
  prejudicious, 20 percent of them has an
  anti-system attitude, 32 percent has a strong
  rightist value-orientation, and 19 percent could
  be characterized with strong fear, untrust or
  pessimism.
• In the Autumn of 2010 the attitude-extremists
  (those whom could be characterized with at least
  three features out of the four above-mentioned
  characteristics) made up the 11 percent of the
  population. This is a significant decrease in
  relation to the 21 percent which was registered
  in 2009, but its basic reason is spectacular
  fallback of fear, anti-system attitude and
  pessimism after the elections. In the moment of
  gathering and registration of these date the
  support of the FIDESZ-Party and government was on
  its meridian, and the vast majority of the voters
  was satisfied with the public affairs. Since then
  the general unsatisfaction and anti-institute
  attitude went back to its earlier, very high
  level.
• Hungary, in comparison with other 18 examined
  European countries, is at the head of the list in
  regard of prejudiciousness, right-wing
  value-orientation, but the fear- and
  untrust-index is relatively high as well.

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The experimental analysis and demonstration of
ethnocentric-syndrome

• The Hamilton-law (the degree of altruism of
  sociable animals is in a direct proportion to the
  degree of relationship/closeness of genetic
  connection).
• Henri Tajfel-law the minimal inter-group
  situation (to what do we switch on?)
• M. Shariff experiment with the boy scout groups
  (how could you generate conflicts between
  different groups?)
• The parochial-altruism experiment (how does
  ethnocentrism emerge?)
• Axelrod the fitness-increasing role of
  ethnocentric-syndrome (is ethnocentrism useful?)
• Instinctive ethnocentrism (racism) in the
  well-developed, modern societies.

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Origin of ethnocentrism1. The Hamilton-law

• Hamilton-law (1963 The Evolution of Altruistic
  Behavior )
• r ? a gt c
• The basis of this formula is that in regard of
  relationships it considers their expenses as well
  as their benefits. Concretely, the formula
  connects
• the factor marked with r which refers to the
  immediacy (closeness) of genetic relationship,
• the a benefit which derives from an altruistic
  relationship,
• and contrasts with it the c expense of the
  altruistic behavior.
• The formula shows the logical result that if a
  being experiences that the benefit which appears
  at the relatives (which is the product of amount
  of help and the closeness of degree of
  relationship which latter refers to the genetic
  closeness) is greater than the expense which it
  causes to itself, then it is expedient to
  behave in an altruistic way, if the main goal is
  the transmission of the own genes.
• The evolution helps the realization of this
  process with different mechanisms individual and
  social/collective learning, hormone-system, etc.

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The realization of Hamilton-law in the human world

1. We are apt to support our relatives and
   precisely according to the degree of relationship
   (with money, help, time, and we are apt to give
   even our own organs more willingly than in other
   cases), and we first of all appeal to them for
   help. On the other hand this is why the defense
   of relatives is so serious and strong partly
   this is the origin of vendetta, almost in a
   necessary way.
2. And inversely on the one hand the farthest the
   relationship the biological connection the
   greater is the possibility of violence (real and
   adopted child), and for this very reason we
   condemn more seriously and sharply the violence
   amongst close relatives (e.g. the matricide).

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The origin of ethnocentrism 2. Tajfel the
minimal group-effect experiment

• In the experiment one had to make his or her
  opinion about the pictures of two painters Klee
  and Kandinsky. The leader of experiment divided
  the participants into two groups, then the
  participants could reward with money the others,
  whom were partly the members of the same group
  and partly the members of the other.
• The researchers examined the strategy according
  to which the people shared the money maximal
  common benefit, the maximalization of own group,
  and the maximalization of difference between the
  two groups, or honest (fifty-fifty) decision.
• The decisive strategy of decisions the
  maximalization of benefit of own group.
• The consequence even the accidental, and from
  the real life completely separate factor could be
  a form-generating force, and in that way that it
  even influences the important decisions, the
  distribution of resources.

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The origin of ethnocentrism
3. M. Sharif Robbers Cave experiment

• 1949-1954 summer boy scout camps, with 10-12 year
  old participants, forming accidental groups.
• The leaders of experiment let the groups to be
  formed, then they programmed conflicts into
  their relation. The battle began between the two
  groups, and none of their members actually knew
  how it began, but they were sure, that a member
  of the other group started it.
• The sign of group-identity We are the brave,
  strong, honest ones. They are the cowards,
  bastards, liars.
• In the competition they took it for granted that
  they use even dishonest, unfair means, and
  desecrate, violate the symbols of the other
  group.
• The reconcilement could not be realized by
  attempts of conviction or persuasion (collective
  worship), only (1) a common enemy (a sport-group
  that came form another camp), or (2) a common,
  collective work (the compulsion of a common
  problem that could be solved only in cooperation
  with the other, rival group) could decrease the
  hostility between those groups.

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Origin of ethnocentrism 4. The altruistic
punishment-games

• Games based on game-theory Prisoners Dilemma,
  dictator-game, ultimatum-game, common goods-game.
  
• The leaders of experiment introduce in the game
  the possibility of immediate punishment they
  grant the possibility for the players, for us,
  that if we judge someones behavior inappropriate
  then we could punish the person in question on
  our own expense.
• This sort of penalty or punishment was called
  altruistic-punishment, because
• It is executed at the punishers own
  cost/expense.
• The punisher does not gain any immediate
  benefit for it.
• It makes harm to the target.
• This possibility was applied in the experiments
  in two ways
• The participants person in question could
  either accomplish the punishment in the end of
  the game
• Or they assigned a particular punisher, who in
  the end of the game judged or evaluated the
  behavior, and could punish it at the expense of
  his or her own money.
• The hypothesis was rational agent wont punish
  at the expense of own money, unless he or she get
  something in return.
• But in the reality most men willingly and gladly
  punished even at his own cost, or even by causing
  harm himself or herself also.

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The origin of ethnocentrism 5. The phenomenon
of parochial altruism
In the experiment the participants played the
punisher DBP-game, with three roles distributor
(D), beneficiary (B) and punisher (P). The
groups were formed of miscellaneous participants,
of two, non-hostile, but far distant tribes (DBP,
BP, DB, DP players from one tribe). The
equitableness or rightfulness was acknowledged by
all, the selfishness was punished by all, but the
aptness to punish was strongly dependent on the
composition of the group It was higher in DBP-
and BP-cases, and lower in DP- and DB-cases. All
these could be explained by parochial altruism
in DP- and DB- cases let his mother cry, but
in DBP- and BP-cases we must avenge the unjust
behavior.
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Origin of ethnocentrism 6. The implicit
association test

• Experiment of Anthony Greenwald word-association
  game it is easier to make a connection in case
  of known connection than in the case of an
  unknown one. (E.g. rose sweet-smelling or
  ugly, snake dangerous or pretty).
• In the second step instead of rose the leader of
  experiment gave typical white and coloured
  names (George and Alonzo). The result it was
  easier to associate George with the words
  handsome and love, and Alonzo with devil,
  poison.
• The general trend was such even the blacks
  tended to associate the whites with favorable
  words, and even they tended to associate
  unfavorable expressions to the black face and
  names.
• This instinctive reaction could be of utmost
  importance in dangerous situations the white
  patient in shooting experiments search
  information in case of white figure, but in case
  of a black one he shoots immediately.
• The so-called ERP (Event-Related Brain Potential)
  which is the reaction in brains electric state
  to a discrete event (e.g. to a seen picture),
  could be detected and registered by the
  electrodes placed on the agents head.
• The overall confirmed results of these
  experiments all human beings are instinctively
  racist.

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The origin of ethnocentrism 7. The
Axelrod-experiment the EC is adaptive

• Axelrods simulation experiment started with such
  agents who preferred their own group and
  avoided interactions with aliens.
• The agents met for time to time and they played
  PD-game. Then they rambled away and/or could
  cooperate again, or they could isolate from the
  cooperation (or could generate a descendant, and
  they could also die).
• In the population the cooperation was
  wide-spread, but the EC-behavior also. In the
  end after 2000 turns the 74 percent of the
  interactions was cooperative, and 76 percent was
  EC-behavior.
• Up to this moment however the miscellaneous
  multicultural - community disintegrated, and
  one-coloured, ethnically homogenous communities
  were born. These ones interacted intensively, but
  they avoid interaction and communication with the
  others.

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Symptomes of EC-phenomenon

1. The EC has some genetically inherited elements,
   which function in a similar way like in our
   animal ancestors, but it also has some socially
   learned elements.
2. A part of EC could be in connection with concrete
   experiences of life, but it also could occur in
   absence of experiences and concrete knowledge.
3. The EC works often as a reflex-operation, but
   very often it is realized through a serious
   deliberation.
4. The EC is a general human phenomenon, which occur
   in every society independently from the degree
   of its development.
5. The EC could influenced, decreased with
   addition of objective data and information but
   it could not be eliminated completely.
6. In many occasions it lurks, it is latent, but
   there are certain situations in life a menace
   against our own community, the competing of
   groups, or the frustration of the individual
   which activate this program.

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What is the reason of collective identity?

• Prefiguration
• The role of relational (genetic) connections in
  altruism (Hamilton-law).
• Environmental pressure
• Growing group and diversity, for this reason the
  strengthening, the intensifying of belonging
  together, of internal relations in the group, and
  integration of the community has an even greater
  importance.
• Function
• It increases the homogeneity, the strength of
  internal group-relations, pro-sociality, and it
  (at least for a certain degree) dissolves the
  conflicts in the group.
• Changes
• Gathering societies one is connected with the
  (larger) family
• Settled societies one is connected with the
  tribe (tribal confederations)
• Statehood earlier one is connected with
  territory (king, kingdom, empire), then with the
  religion.

30
Revolutions of human evolution

• Earliest stage of human evolution it is the
  stage of human ethology
• Modern man EEA (Environment of evolutionary
  adaptedness) and the phase of evolutionary
  psychology
• Symbolic revolution the cultural evolution
  became more important (here appears speech and
  language)
• Neolithic revolution here appears culture in
  its entire reality, and also inequality,
  rulership and hierarchic community
• Institutional revolution here appears state and
  everything else writing and even more complex,
  developed conceptual thinking.

31
The levels of hierarchic controlling-system which
determines the behavior

• 1. Earliest level of human evolution
  reflex-like, click-launch reaction.
• 2. The level of emergence of modern man he
  anticipates the solution, and acts
  instinctively ( some deliberation)
• 3. Level of symbolic revolution he realizes the
  sign, identifies its meaning or sense, and he
  behaves in accordance with it.
• 4. Level of Neolithic revolution he is in
  connection with experience and with what he
  learnt from his ancestors, deliberates and
  behaves according to that.
• 5. Level of institutional revolution he
  analyses the circumstances, applies the models of
  science, gathers information, deliberates
  prudently, and takes into account the possible
  consequences.

32
What does the institutional level means?

• The institutions are tinkered or gadgeteered
  from the earlier emerged elements of culture,
  they are systems with a concrete adaptive
  functions, which determine and form the human
  behavior on a very basic level.
• Roles, symbols and rules, made up from the
  material and spiritual elements of culture,
  systems which control the behavior.
• Since this point our life takes place within the
  frames of these institutions state, politics,
  ideology, religion, domination, market etc. These
  systems make the environment and circumstances
  stable and predictable.
• Their functioning is based upon the earlier
  levels, but on the institutional level the agent
  makes deliberations, and takes into the account
  the actual and possible effects of these
  institutions.

33
Evolution of ethnocentrism

• 1. Earliest stage of human evolution etological
  refusal and affinity
• 2. The revolution of modern man emergence of
  ethno- centric module
• 3. Symbolic revolution emergence of
  xenophobia (racism)
• 4. Neolithic revolution the prejudice
• 5. Institutional revolution ideology

34
The Matrioshka-model of ethnocentrism
Level of ideologies
Level of prejudices
Level of xenophobia/homophily
Level of ethnocentric-module
Level of biological kinship
35
The main steps of group-identity in human
evolution

1. Before settle evolutionary psychological mental
   module. Its sign is the ending of the
   smiling-phase of the infant, the fear from
   unacquainted, alien people after 7-8 months.
2. After symbolic revolution the fear and the
   identification is raised by symbols, which we
   transmit partly orally and partly in written form
   (star, cross, song, living speech, etc.).
3. The stereotype emerged after settling we have to
   cooperate with alien people with whom we are
   living together, we must classify them in a way
   or another, and the rejection could change after
   a while.
4. The ideology emerged in the age of institutional
   revolution, as a complex institute, (symbols,
   roles, rules, rites, building, etc.).

36
Steps of identity in the course of human
evolution

• On the first level the biological relatedness is
  decisive kinship biological descendance or
  lineage.
• After the symbolic revolution the kinship became
  socially constructed feature.
• In this period the communication between
  communities became a decisive factor. Claude
  Lévi-Strauss Civilization is exchange of items,
  information and spouses.
• It is not the biological relationship, but the
  system of social relation which is truly matters.
  (In the Kalahari Desert we, ju hoansi real
  human. Aliens, ju dole bad, evil, malicious
  being. But the word barbarian in Ancient Greek
  language refers to quite the same barbarian
  that who doesnt understand Greek language,
  that who cannot speak intelligibly)
• We must support our own kin, and we have a good
  reason to expect the same support from our own
  kin, and we must reject the alien people, and
  avoid them.
• We try to dehumanize the enemy. (E.g. in American
  prisons the violence amongst the prisoners is
  mentioned with the following slang expression
  NHI, that is No human involved).

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Steps of identity towards the multi-cultural form
of identity

• Blood-brother/sister the closest family
• Foster-brother/sister extended family, the clan
• Tribe-brother tribal federations
• Brethren, co-religionist religion (state)
• Nation-brother nation (state)
• Class-brother class
• All men become brothers - mankind

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The precedent indications and preparatory
functions of religion on the level of animals

• Culture
• Tool-using and tool-making
• Politics
• Exchange of needs and activities
• Following rules and norms
• Pro-sociability.
• Prosocial behavior or "voluntary behavior
  intended to benefit another", consists of actions
  which "benefit other people or society as a
  whole", "such as helping, sharing, donating,
  co-operating, and volunteering." In short a sort
  of altruism.
• These functions could be found in a preliminary
  form on the level of higher primates.

39
The mental modules in evolutionary psychology

• Modularity of mind is the notion that a mind
  may, at least in part, be composed of separate
  innate structures which have established
  evolutionarily developed functional purposes.
• In evolutionary psychology, amongst others, Leda
  Cosmides treated the problem of modularity of
  mind.
• This perspective suggests that modules are units
  of mental processing that evolved in response to
  selection pressures. On this view, much modern
  human psychological activity is rooted in
  adaptations that occurred earlier in human
  evolution, when natural selection was forming the
  modern human species.
• Source Cosmides, L. Tooby, J. (1994). Origins
  of Domain Specificity The Evolution of
  Functional Organization. In L.A. Hirschfeld and
  S.A. Gelmen, eds., Mapping the Mind Domain
  Specificity in Cognition and Culture. Cambridge
  Cambridge University Press

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What does the mental modules-level mean?

• 1. They are certain forms of behavior, which were
  called into existence by problems and challenges
  given the evolutionary adaptive environment of
  early periods of evolution of man.
• 2. They are functional units which fixed in the
  brain, and which provide certain sorts of
  solution to certain problems of adaptation. They
  are tools or instruments of the solution.
• 3. We decide with the instinctive, unconscious
  application of these mental modules, who could we
  trust, who could be a cheater, what should we
  eat, from what should be afraid of.
• 4. Its a psychological attitude, a preference
  that influences the behavior, and which presses
  the individual towards a certain direction, and
  generates definite answers to certain situations
  from time to time.

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Evoloutionary interpretation of most of the
social phenomena

• We could interpret most of the social phenomena
  in an evolutionary way, whose inner core is
  genetically programmed, and whose outer layers
  are a kind of superstructure.
• The ethnocentrism identity-forming elements each
  based upon the other,
• The religion layers of spiritual constructions,
• The ethics layers of good-evil generating
  constructions,
• The state layers of territorial controlling,
• Politics layers of mechanisms of collective
  decision-making,
• Governance layers of mastership, rulership and
  calling to account,
• Internal organizations layers of evolutionary
  programmed autonomous unites (firms, companies,
  organizations),
• Science layers of cognitive, cognizing,
  information-collecting, testing and transmissive
  mechanisms.

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Basic concepts of evolution

• What do we call evolution?
• Evolution on the micro-level the change of the
  genetical composition of a population on account
  of the selective pressure of environment.
• Evolution on the macro-level the evolvement of
  present forms of life, during over millions of
  year, from the most primitive forms of life.
• Every functional unit in a living creature is
  either an adaptation, or a by-product or a bug.
• Every and any adaptation exists only in
  relationship of other adaptations, and never in
  isolation, separated from them. We could
  understand and interpret an adaptation only in
  the context of other adaptations.

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The concept of adaptation

• The fundamental characteristics of adaptation
• It is brought forth by evolutionary, selective
  pressure it is an answer to adaptive problems.
• It increases the sufficiency of a living being
  immediately.
• It offers instrumental, tool-like solutions to
  actual evolutionary problems.
• The process of evolution evolutionary pressure ?
  gadgeteering ? selection ? adaptation

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Basic features of adaptation

• What is adaptation in general?
• 1.Adaptation is not a process, but a tool or
  instrument to solve a problem.
• 2. The living beings and societies are always
  forced to face different problems during their
  history, and they evolve different
  construction-type solutions.
• 3. In the natural world these tools
  (constructions) are organs and types (or
  patterns) of behavior.
• 4. In the human world these tools (constructions)
  are institutes, techniques and ideas.
• 5. The evolving or development of these tools
  happens in way of gadgeteering the nature
  could work with the material, which is already
  made, the tools present at hand. It attaches
  something to those tools, alters them a little
  bit in a way or another it (the nature) changes
  the tools which are present in such a way that
  they could be used in the present situation, and
  they could be alters further in the future, if it
  is needed.

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The Matrioshka model of man
Level of institutions
Level of cultural universals
Level of symbols
Level of mental modules
Level of human ethology
Three further levels inside human ethology 1.
primate brain, 2. mammal brain, and 3. reptile
brain.
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MacLean, P. D. (1990) The three-brain-model
Second floor primate-brain
First floor mammal-brain
Ground-floor reptile-brain