Civilizations and world religions

1
Civilizations and world religions

• 6. Lecture.
• Phenomena and evolutionary theory of religion

2
Revolutions of human evolution

• Earliest stage of human evolution it is the
  stage of human ethology
• Modern man (EEA Environment of Evolutionary
  adaptation) 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.

3
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.

4
The Matrioshka-model of ethnocentrism
Level of ideologies
Level of prejudices
Level of xenophobia/homophily
Level of ethnocentric-module
Level of biological kinship
5
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.

6
The main steps of 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 fear and
   identification is brought forth by symbols, which
   we transmit in part orally and in part 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.).

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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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The elements of evolutionary theory of religion

• 1. The interpretation of the origins of religion
  by the help of basic categories of evolution,
  (such as inheritance, mutation, selection,
  adaptation, etc.)
• 2a. The interpretation of religion as a social,
  gadgeteered (bricolage) construction, as an
  adaptation, (a function that helps the survival).
• 2b. The presentation of such functions, which
  helps the individuals and the group to solve
  certain problems in the actual situation, or in
  the actual level of evolution. (So, due to which
  function it is an adaptation, and not a
  by-product or a bug).
• 3. The understanding of why is the unfolding of
  evolutionary story that lead to the present,
  (just so story). In evolution the answer to a
  question is always a story.

9
What is religion? In the prespective of
evolutionary theory

• 1. Religion is a cultural universal it could
  be found in every known present and past (after
  its material mementos known) societies.
• Concerning sociologists (Durkheim, Murdock,
  Lévi-Strauss, Donald Brown, etc.) a cultural
  universal is an element, pattern, trait, or
  institution that is common to all human cultures
  worldwide.

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What is religion? 2.

• 2. It fulfils very similar functions in every
  society
• A. Influences behavior (punishes, rewards).
• B. Legitimates (a hierarchy, a society).
• C. Interprets, explains (the structure, the
  actual state of world).
• D. It offers a technique of manipulation that
  promises practical success (via prayer, rite or
  magical praxis).
• E. It absolves, appeases, and provides a
  high-level emotional satisfaction.
• 3. One cannot necessarily find all these features
  in every religious phenomena in the world, but a
  certain combination of them is demonstrable in
  every single case of religions of the world.

11
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.

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The evolutionary account of religion.Precedents
of religion at animals

• The appearance of theory of mind at animals,
  the genesis of secondary (attributed)
  intentionality on the prehuman level.
• Tool-using and tool-making and, in close
  relationship with it, the appearance of
  manipulative strategy of success, which is given
  with tool-using.
• The appearance of ritual behavior in social
  relations, and the spread of this ritual
  behavior.
• Application of social relations in order to
  influence or stimulate psychological states,
  (grooming, as a technique to solve conflicts).
• Recommended literature Robin Dunbar, Grooming,
  Gossip, and the Evolution of Language (Cambridge,
  Massachusetts Harvard University Press, 1996).

13
Determination of the actual level of the agents
Theory of Mind. The Sally and Ann-Test. The
children begin to realize that Sally will look
for the ball in the basket at the age of 2-3
years. According to the results of the
experiments a matured chimpanzee is also able to
provide this achievement.
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The determination of the actual level of the
agents Theory of Mind. The Gold-fish Test

• Two sorts of feed on plates are shown to children
  of 14-18 months broccoli and gold-fish biscuit.
  All likes gold-fish biscuit, and non the
  broccoli.
• The adult with them tastes both types of food,
  and he pretends that he likes the broccoli very
  much, and that he dislikes the gold-fish biscuit
  also very much.
• Then he holds out his hands to the child Give
  me please, from one of these feed!
• The 14 month old children after thinking a
  while give the gold-fish biscuit to the adult
  after all everybody likes gold-fish biscuit!
• The 18 month old children though a bit
  surprised (wow! there are people who dont
  like gold-fish biscuit!) give broccoli to the
  adult.

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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 challanges
  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 affraid 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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The ages and periods of evolution of religion

• 1. The appearance of modern man. At around
  500,000 BC, till 120,000 BC. The genesis of
  spiritual modules. The modules of evolutionary
  psychology. There is no religion yet in the
  strict sense of the word.
• 2. The symbolic revolution. It is the period of
  a personal religion. From 120,000 BC till
  20,000 BC.
• 3. The Neolithic revolution. The age of social
  religion. Worldwide circa 20,0007000 years.
• 4. The institutional revolution. The age of
  institutional religions. From 7000 till nowadays.

18
The Matrioshka-model of religion
Religion as a fully developed instituion
Level of social religion
Level of personal religion
Level of spiritual module
Level of elements of Theory of Mind
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The revolution of becoming a human. The genesis
of spiritual module

• The agent-generating module, (presuming agents in
  the events of external reality, and comprehend
  the effects and events in the world according to
  this presumption).
• Belief-generating module, (in uncertain
  situation, when we should react in a short time,
  one should attribute the value of certainty to
  uncertain and unjustified information).
• Evolved or fully developed rituality-generating
  module. (Trying to realize or achieve certain
  wished goals by virtue of definite pattern or
  series of actions).
• Happiness-generating module. (Simulating the
  happiness provided by the presence of a parent
  also in their absence).
• Attention to social learning-module. (Attending
  to and following what is taught by the other
  members of the group).
• Creating contrafactual things (imagination of
  things which are only possible capability to
  fantasize purely imaginative situations).

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The birth of spiritual modules 2.

• What is essential is the connection of all the
  modules which are mentioned above.
• What we call spiritual module is the connection
  of all those modules, or the collective,
  simultaneous appearance of them.
• The spiritual module makes the life of man
  easier. The man believes in contrafactual
  agents who could help him, who could be
  summoned at will, whom he could treat as
  friends, companions, supporters, and whom it is a
  pleasure to contact, and make consultations
  with them.

21
The operation of spiritual module 1.

• Researchers investigated whether religious belief
  influences the aptness or disposition to punish
  in case of unfair behavior.
• They affected the participants of experiment with
  such messages of religious content, which did not
  attain the level of consciousness. They flashed
  on the monitor for moments words like God,
  piety, punishment.
• Other participants got messages of religiously
  neutral content, like tractor, airplane,
  caricature.
• Results showed those participants, who were
  filled by religious contents, tended to punish
  with an increased frequency and in a higher
  degree those people, who deviated from the
  expected behavior.
• The researchers concluded, that though there are
  several psychological factors which take part in
  the articulation and formation of behavior, it is
  an essential motive in the case of believers,
  that there is a transcendent being who watch them
  continuously, and evaluates their deeds and
  motives all the time as well.

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The operation of spiritual module 2.

• The belief in existence of powerful,
  transcendent, invisible supernatural forces
  appears at children in a very early age.
• In an experiment which was recently done
  researchers investigated the rule-following
  attitudes and behavior of 5-6 and 8-9 year old
  children.
• They told to one group of the children that the
  solving of their exercises is watched by
  Princess Alice, by an invisible fairy, in whom
  they believed. Other group of the children was
  controlled by a real adult, who was present
  during the completing of the exercises. Finally
  there was a third group whose members were
  neither controlled, nor they believed in
  Princess Alice.
• In the case of those children who believed in
  Alice, the rule-following behavior was as strong
  and firm as in the case of those children, who
  were controlled by a real adult.
• But in the case of faithless children the
  rule-following behavior was induced only by the
  presence of a real controlling figure, but they
  tendentiously broke the rules in the absence of
  the adult.

23
The operation of agent-generating module

• Recent experiments show that the children
  relatively early - at around 12 months achieves
  the idea, according to which they associate the
  order, the creation of operational, automotive
  things with agents, and they conceive the
  inanimate things as the cause and source of
  disorder, as things which on their own account
  cannot create an order, nor any operational thing.

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The symbolic revolutionThe age of personal
religion

• Small community, ties of kindred, (instinctive
  pro-sociality).
• Mutual dependence, special importance of
  recognizing the others intentions.
• Appearance of symbolic objects, signs, actions
  and products.
• Tool-using. The always increasing and
  accumulating knowledge of tool-making.
• Demand to affect and influence the future, (by
  virtue of addressing agents the birth of
  magical praxis and magical notions).
• Birth of individual and collective consciousness.
  (Genesis of I or me and we).
• Festivals, rites and ritual objects.
• Notion of life after death. The appearance of
  burial-places.
• Norm the rule of commonly, collectively expected
  behavior, which is obligatory in regard of all
  members of the community, and whose keeping could
  be even forced by violence.

25
Effect of religious symbols 1.

• The effect of punishing gods after the end of
  life, evaluating the entire life of the person in
  question, they determine the final station for
  that man. According to the merits or sins of the
  person these gods send him to Heaven or to Hell.
  This might force the believer to take into
  account the attention of his or her god every
  time when he or she does something.
• That this hypothesis is true, so that this
  religious effect instinctively, but in a very
  effective, very real way influences the behavior,
  is proven by an experiment, which was done a few
  years ago.

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Effect of religious symbols 2.

• The participants of the experiment had to
  evaluate two, morally problematic cases the
  first of which was a stolen wallet, the other is
  a faked curriculum vitae. They had to judge
  normatively these cases on a nine-grade
  Linkert-scale.
• When on the paper there was an eye (as a mere
  ornament), the participants evaluated the deeds
  in question much more rigorously as when there
  were flowers on the paper.
• So the picture, which was not even conscious for
  the participants of this experiment, influenced
  the behavior and moral attitudes of them in a
  demonstrable way.
• Source Bourrat, P. www.epjournal.net. 2010. 8(x)
  1-11.

27
Flowers and eyes. The Bateson-experiment
In the experiments of Gregory Bateson the workers
of the observed office paid for the consumed tea,
coffee or milk in a voluntary way. The amount of
money in the voluntary pay-box showed an explicit
and demonstrable correlation with the picture on
the wall in the back-ground accordingly whether
there were eyes or flowers
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Evolutionary definition of religion on the first
level

• 1. Belief in supernatural being, and belief in
  that they could be influenced by certain actions.
• 2. Namely that they could be influenced,
  affected, and their benevolence could be gained
  by rites, practices, donations and gifts.
• 3. Special experiences, which join those rites,
  religious practices and the meeting of the
  ancestors.

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The neolithic revolutionAge of social religion

• Communities with increasing number of members
  (the importance of unrelated relationship
  increases).
• Settling, building villages.
• Domesticating animals, division of labour, the
  foundation of life is production.
• Emergence and consolidation of inequality in
  power and property.
• Commonly and regularly organized fests and rites.
• Fixed rituals and collective identity. (Religion
  as a cultural universal).

30
Evolutionary definition of religion on the
second level

• Provides collective identity.
• Provides a meaning of life and general
  explanation to the world.
• It supports the collective, social norms
• 1. It helps the isolation of secondary
  free-riders.
• 2. It provides and legitimates the rules and
  norms of society in question.

31
The institutional revolutionAge of
institutional religion

• Co-existence of communities with different
  cultural universals.
• The division of labour and class-structure are
  fixed, and they are passed over to younger
  generations.
• The importance of commerce increases.
• The organizing of sources of common pool becomes
  a determining factor.
• The appearance of state.
• The appearance of other basic social institutes,
  which are interrelated, and which are in a close
  relationship with each other law, ethics,
  market, taxation.
• Appearance of such social constructions which are
  important in regard of the above-mentioned basic
  institutions writing, building roads, shipping,
  handicraft, metallurgy, etc.
• Cities.
• Army.
• Birth of major social and territorial
  organizations empires, states.

32
The new functions of religion in the age of
empires

• 1. It legitimates the domination and hierarchy.
• 2. It provides principles and rules to organize
  the society.
• 3. It is a system of social activities, with
  unique objects, specially made for religious
  praxis and activities, with a special group of
  people (clergy), that has a peculiar place in the
  collective division of labour, on a special
  (holy) place, where a special building is made
  with religious intentions, (temple), and which
  place and building serve as a centre for the life
  of entire community.

33
The elements of evolutionary theory of religion

• 1. The interpretation of the origins of religion
  by the help of basic catherogies of evolution,
  (such as inheritance, mutation, selection,
  adaptation, etc.)
• 2a. The interpretation of religion as a social,
  gadgeteered construction, as an adaptation, (a
  function that helps the survival).
• 2b. The presentation of such functions, which
  helps the individuals and the group to solve
  certain problems in the actual situation, or in
  the actual level of evolution. (So, due to which
  function it is an adaptation, and not a
  by-product or a bug).
• 3. The understanding of why is the unfolding of
  evolutionary story that lead to the present,
  (just so story). In evolution the answer to a
  question is always a story.

34
What is religion? In the prespective of
evolutionary theory

• 1. Religion is a cultural universal it could
  be found in every known present and past (after
  its material mementos known) societies.
• Amongst sociologists (Durkheim, Murdock,
  Lévi-Strauss, Donald Brown, etc.) a cultural
  universal is an element, pattern, trait, or
  institution that is common to all human cultures
  worldwide.