The Evolution of Religion and Morality
Volume I
- 166 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
The Evolution of Religion and Morality
Volume I
About this book
This volume assesses the role of religion in cooperation and prosocial behaviour using ethnographic and experimental methods across eight different field sites. The first of two volumes presents results from the first phase of the Evolution of Religion and Morality (ERM) Project.
Using a unique combination of both experimental and ethnographic methods, the ERM project addresses pressing questions from the burgeoning cultural evolutionary sciences of religion:
- What is the relationship between religious beliefs and cooperation?
- When people are committed to punitive, knowledgeable, and morally concerned gods, are they more inclined to behave prosocially towards others?
- How far does this prosociality extend?
- Do important individual and contextual factors mediate this relationship?
In addition to an omnibus report, this book offers seven site-specific reports that contextualize experimental and ethnographic data collected around the world. Collecting data from communities as diverse as the Hadza of Tanzania, villagers from two communities on Tanna Island, Vanuatu, residents of Marajó, Brazil, Fijians from Yasawa and Lovu, Tyvans from southern Siberia, and Mauritians, this ground-breaking work sets a new standard in the scientific study of religion.
The Evolution of Religion and Morality: Volume I will be a key resource for scholars and researchers of religious studies, human evolutionary biology, psychology, anthropology, the cultural evolution of religion and the sociology of religion. This book was originally published as a special issue of Religion, Brain & Behavior.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Half Title
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Table of Contents
- Citation Information
- Notes on Contributors
- 1 The evolution of religion and morality: a synthesis of ethnographic and experimental evidence from eight societies
- 2 High levels of rule-bending in a minimally religious and largely egalitarian forager population
- 3 Religion and expanding the cooperative sphere in Kastom and Christian villages on Tanna, Vanuatu
- 4 Religiosity and resource allocation in Marajó, Brazil
- 5 Jesus vs. the ancestors: how specific religious beliefs shape prosociality on Yasawa Island, Fiji
- 6 Buddhism, identity, and class: fairness and favoritism in the Tyva Republic
- 7 Religion and prosocial behavior among the Indo-Fijians
- 8 Big Gods in small places: the Random Allocation Game in Mauritius
- Index