Mortal Rituals
eBook - ePub

Mortal Rituals

What the Story of the Andes Survivors Tells Us About Human Evolution

  1. 248 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Mortal Rituals

What the Story of the Andes Survivors Tells Us About Human Evolution

About this book


A psychology professor examines what the survivors of the airplane crash hailed "The Miracle of the Andes" can show us about human evolution.

On December 21, 1972, sixteen young survivors of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 were rescued after spending ten weeks stranded at the crash site of their plane, high in the remote Andes Mountains. The incident made international headlines and spawned several best-selling books, fueled partly by the fact that the young men had resorted to cannibalism to survive.
Matt Rossano examines this story from an evolutionary perspective, weaving together findings and ideas from anthropology, psychology, religion, and cognitive science. During their ordeal, these young men broke "civilized" taboos to fend off starvation and abandoned "civilized" modes of thinking to maintain social unity and individual sanity. Through the power of ritual, the survivors were able to endure severe emotional and physical hardship. Rossano ties their story to our story, seeing in the mortal rituals of this struggle for survival a reflection of what it means to be human.

"[Rossano's] narrative describes a "microcosm of human evolution," and I think this book will grab the interest of many readers?students as well as the general public?as it teaches essential facts about the way Homo sapiens evolved."—David Hicks, Stony Brook University and Clare College, Cambridge University
"[Rossano] masterfully weaves a moving contemporary drama with a compelling account of the evolutionary history of ritual and religion. An impressive accomplishment and a truly captivating read from start to finish."—Richard Sosis, University of Connecticut, cofounder and coeditor of  Religion, Brain, & Behavior


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Information

Year
2013
Print ISBN
9780231165006
eBook ISBN
9780231535465
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Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Contents
  5. Preface
  6. Frontispiece
  7. Introduction
  8. One. Natural Versus Civilized
  9. Two. The Evolution of Taboo
  10. Three. This Cold and Capricious Place
  11. Four. Mountain Rituals
  12. Five. Rituals of Love
  13. Six. Ritual Defeats the Mountain
  14. Seven. God of the Mountain
  15. Notes
  16. References
  17. Index

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