Supernaturalizing Social Life
@article{Rossano2007SupernaturalizingSL, title={Supernaturalizing Social Life}, author={Matt J. Rossano}, journal={Human Nature}, year={2007}, volume={18}, pages={272-294} }
This paper examines three ancient traits of religion whose origins likely date back to the Upper Paleolithic: ancestor worship, shamanism, and the belief in natural and animal spirits. Evidence for the emergence of these traits coincides with evidence for a dramatic advance in human social cooperation. It is argued that these traits played a role in the evolution of human cooperation through the mechanism of social scrutiny. Social scrutiny is an effective means of reducing individualism and…
52 Citations
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