Using Neurosociology and Evolutionary Sociology to Explain the Origin and Evolution of Religions
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jcsr.35721Keywords:
evolution, selection, Darwinian selection, Non-Darwinian selection, religion, sociologyAbstract
Religion emerged as a cognitive capacity and behavioral propensity by virtue of Darwinian natural selection on hominins and then humans to become more social and group oriented. The capacity to be religious is only a modest extension of the Darwinian selection on cognitive, emotional, and interpersonal propensities of all great apes and, hence, early hominins. However, other forms of natural selection need to be added to the explanation of why religion became institutionalized in early human societies, why religious organizations arise and die from competition, and why violence is so often a part of religious revolution. These additional types of natural selection do not obviate Darwinian selection on the human brain, but they become a necessary supplement to Darwinian analysis if the early institutionalization and subsequent evolution of religion are to be more fully explained.
References
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Stephan, H. and O. J. Andy. 1969. “Quantitative Comparative Neuroanatomy of Primates: An Attempt at Phylogenetic Interpretation.” Annals of the New York Academy of Science 167: 370–387. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.1969.tb20457.x
———. 1977. “Quantitative Comparison of the Amygdala in Insectivores and Primates.” Acta Antomica 98: 130–153. https://doi.org/10.1159/000144789
Stephen, H. Frahm and B. Baron. 1981. “New and Revised Data on volumes of Brain Structures in Insectivores and Primates.” Folia Primatoligica 35: 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1159/000155963
Stephan, H., G. Baron and H. Frahm. 1988. “Comparative Size of Brains and Brain Components.” In Neurosciences, vol. 4, edited by H. Steklis and J. Erwin, 1–37. New York: Alan Liss.
Turner, Jonathan H. 1988. A Theory of Social Interaction. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
———. 1995. Macrodynamics: Toward A General Theory on the Organization of Human Populations. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
———. 2000. On the Origins of Human Emotions: A Sociological Inquiry into the Evolution of Human Affect. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
———. 2002. Face-to-Face: Toward a Sociological Theory of Interpersonal Behavior. Stanford CA: Stanford Univrsity Press.
———. 2007. Human Emotions: Toward a Sociological Theory. Oxford UK: Routledge.
———. 2010a. Theoretical Principles of Sociology, Volume 2 on Microdynamics. New York: Springer.
———. 2010b. Theoretical Principles of Sociology, Volume 1 on Macrodynamics. New York: Springer.
———. 2012. Theoretical Principles of Sociology, Volume 3 on Mesodynamics. New York: Springer.
Turner, Jonathan H. 2013. “Organizational Ecology: Darwinian and Non-Darwinian Dynamics.” In Handbook of Evolution and Society: Toward an Evolutionary Social Science, edited by J. H. Turner, R. Machalek and A. R. Maryanski, 333–348. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Press.
———. 2014a. “The Evolution of Human Emotions.” In Handbook of the Sociology of Emotions, Volume 2, edited by J. E. Stets and J. H. Turner, 11–31. New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9130-4_2
———. 2014b. “The Evolution of Affect, Sociality, Altruism and Prosocial Behavior in Humans.” In Altruism, Morality, and Social Solidarity: Envisioning a Field, edited by V. Jeffries and L. Nichols, 275–301. London: Palgrave. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137391865_12
Turner, Jonathan H. and Alexandra Maryanski. 2008. On the Origins of Societies by Natural Selection. Boulder: Paradigm Press.
———. 2012. “The Biology and Neurology of Group Processes.” Advances in Group Processes 29: 1–38. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0882-6145(2012)0000029004
———. 2013. “The Evolution of the Neurological Basis of Human Sociality.” In Handbook of Neurosociology, edited by D. Franks and J. H. Turner, 289–309. New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4473-8_19
———. 2015. “Evolutionary Sociology: A Cross-Species Strategy for Discovering Human Nature.” In Handbook of Evolution and Society: Toward an Evolutionary Social Science, edited by J. H. Turner, R. Machalek and A. R. Maryanski, 546–571. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Press.
Turner, Jonathan H., Richard Machalek and Alexandra Maryanski, eds. 2015. The Handbook of Evolution and Society: Toward a More Explanatory Social Science. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Press.
de Waal, Frans B. M. and Sarah F. Brosnan. 2006. “Simple and Complex Reciprocity in Primates.” In Cooperation in Primates and Humans: Mechanisms and Evolution, edited by P. Kappeler and C. P. van Schaik, 85–106. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-28277-7_5
———. 2009. The Age of Empathy: Nature’s Lessons for a Kinder Society. New York: Crown Publishing.
Wuthnow, Robert. 1984. Meaning and the Moral Order. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.
Zillig, M. 1928. “Einstellung und Aussage.” Zeitschrift für Psychologie 106: 58–106.
Collins, Randall. 1975. Conflict Sociology: Toward an Explanatory Science. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Damasio, Antonio. 1994. Descartes Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain. New York: Avon Books.
———. 1999. The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness. Orlando, FL: Harcourt. New York: Three Rivers Press.
Durkheim, Émile. 1893 [1997]. The Division of Labor in Society. New York: Free Press.
———. 1947 [1912]. The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life. New York: The Free Press.
Eccles, John. C. 1989. Evolution of the Brain: Creation of Self. London: Routledge.
Franks, David D. 2010. Neurosociology: The Nexus between Neuroscience and Social Psychology. New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5531-9
Franks, David D. and Jonathan H. Turner, eds. 2013. Handbook of Neurosociology. New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4473-8
Froese, Paul. 2009. The Plot to Kill God: Findings from the Soviet Experiment in Secularization. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Gallup, G. G., Jr. 1970. “Chimpanzees: Self-Recognition.” Science 167 (3914): 86–87. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.167.3914.86
———. 1982. “Self-Awareness and the Emergence of Mind in Primates.” American Journal of Primatology 2: 237–248. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/88.2.237
Geschwind, N. 1965a. “Disconnection Syndromes in Animals and Man, Part I.” Brain 88: 237–294. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/88.2.237
———. 1965b. “Disconnection Syndromes in Animals and Man, Part II.” Brain 88: 585–644. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/88.3.585
———. 1965c. “Disconnection Syndromes in Animals and Man.” Brain 88: 237–285. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/88.2.237
Geschwind, Norman and Antonio Damasio, 1984. “The Neural Basis of Language.” Annual Review of Neuroscience 7: 127–147. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ne.07.030184.001015
Heider, Fritz. 1946. “Attitudes and Cognitive Organization.” Journal of Psychology 26: 107–112. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223980.1946.9917275
Koffka, Kurt. 1935. Principles of Gestalt Psychology. New York: Harcourt Brace.
Kohler, Wolfgang. 1929. Gestalt Psychology. New York: Liveright.
Maryanski, Alexandra. 1987. “African Ape Social Structure: Is There Strength in Weak Ties?” Social Networks 9: 191–215. https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-8733(87)90020-7
———. 1992. “The Last Ancestor: An Ecological-Network Model on the Origins of Human Sociality.” Advances in Human Ecology 2: 1–32.
———. 1993. “The Elementary Forms of the First Proto-Human Society: An Ecological/Social Network Approach.” Advances in Human Evolution 2: 215–241.
———. 1995. “African Ape Social Networks: A Blueprint for Reconstructing Early Hominid Social Structure.” In Archaeology of Human Ancestry, edited by J. Steele and S. Shennan, 67–90. London: Routledge.
———. 1996. “Was Speech an Evolutionary Afterthought?” In Communicating Meaning: The Evolution and Development of Language, edited by B. Velichikovsky and D. Rumbaugh, 79–102. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Maryanski, A. and J. H. Turner. 1992. The Social Cage: Human Nature and the Evolution of Society. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Mead, George Herbert. 1934. Mind, Self, and Society. Chicago, IL.: University of Chicago Press.
Plutchik, Robert. 1980. Emotion: An Evolutionary Synthesis. New York: Harper and Row.
Rumbaugh, Duane and E. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh. 1990. “Chimpanzees: Competencies for Language and Numbers.” In Comparative Perception, vol. 2, edited by William Stebbins and Mark Berkley, 409–441. New York: Wiley and Sons.
Savage-Rumbaugh, Sue and Roger Lewin. 1994. Kanzi: The Ape at the Brink of the Human Mind. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
Savage-Rumbaugh, S., J. Murphy, J. Seveik, K. Brakke, S. L. Williams, and D. Rumbaugh. 1993. Language Comprehension in the Ape and Child. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 58. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Schutz, Alfred. 1967 [1932]. Phenomenology of the Social World. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
Smelser, Neil J. 1962. Theory of Collective Behavior. New York: Free Press.
Snow, David and S. A. Soule. 2010. A Primer on Social Movements. New York: Norton.
Spencer, Herbert, 1898 [1874–1896]. The Principles of Sociology. New York: Appleton-Century Edition.
Stephan, H. 1983. “Evolutionary Trends in Limbic Structures.” Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Review 7: 367–374. https://doi.org/10.1016/0149-7634(83)90041-6
Stephan, H. and O. J. Andy. 1969. “Quantitative Comparative Neuroanatomy of Primates: An Attempt at Phylogenetic Interpretation.” Annals of the New York Academy of Science 167: 370–387. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.1969.tb20457.x
———. 1977. “Quantitative Comparison of the Amygdala in Insectivores and Primates.” Acta Antomica 98: 130–153. https://doi.org/10.1159/000144789
Stephen, H. Frahm and B. Baron. 1981. “New and Revised Data on volumes of Brain Structures in Insectivores and Primates.” Folia Primatoligica 35: 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1159/000155963
Stephan, H., G. Baron and H. Frahm. 1988. “Comparative Size of Brains and Brain Components.” In Neurosciences, vol. 4, edited by H. Steklis and J. Erwin, 1–37. New York: Alan Liss.
Turner, Jonathan H. 1988. A Theory of Social Interaction. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
———. 1995. Macrodynamics: Toward A General Theory on the Organization of Human Populations. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
———. 2000. On the Origins of Human Emotions: A Sociological Inquiry into the Evolution of Human Affect. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
———. 2002. Face-to-Face: Toward a Sociological Theory of Interpersonal Behavior. Stanford CA: Stanford Univrsity Press.
———. 2007. Human Emotions: Toward a Sociological Theory. Oxford UK: Routledge.
———. 2010a. Theoretical Principles of Sociology, Volume 2 on Microdynamics. New York: Springer.
———. 2010b. Theoretical Principles of Sociology, Volume 1 on Macrodynamics. New York: Springer.
———. 2012. Theoretical Principles of Sociology, Volume 3 on Mesodynamics. New York: Springer.
Turner, Jonathan H. 2013. “Organizational Ecology: Darwinian and Non-Darwinian Dynamics.” In Handbook of Evolution and Society: Toward an Evolutionary Social Science, edited by J. H. Turner, R. Machalek and A. R. Maryanski, 333–348. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Press.
———. 2014a. “The Evolution of Human Emotions.” In Handbook of the Sociology of Emotions, Volume 2, edited by J. E. Stets and J. H. Turner, 11–31. New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9130-4_2
———. 2014b. “The Evolution of Affect, Sociality, Altruism and Prosocial Behavior in Humans.” In Altruism, Morality, and Social Solidarity: Envisioning a Field, edited by V. Jeffries and L. Nichols, 275–301. London: Palgrave. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137391865_12
Turner, Jonathan H. and Alexandra Maryanski. 2008. On the Origins of Societies by Natural Selection. Boulder: Paradigm Press.
———. 2012. “The Biology and Neurology of Group Processes.” Advances in Group Processes 29: 1–38. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0882-6145(2012)0000029004
———. 2013. “The Evolution of the Neurological Basis of Human Sociality.” In Handbook of Neurosociology, edited by D. Franks and J. H. Turner, 289–309. New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4473-8_19
———. 2015. “Evolutionary Sociology: A Cross-Species Strategy for Discovering Human Nature.” In Handbook of Evolution and Society: Toward an Evolutionary Social Science, edited by J. H. Turner, R. Machalek and A. R. Maryanski, 546–571. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Press.
Turner, Jonathan H., Richard Machalek and Alexandra Maryanski, eds. 2015. The Handbook of Evolution and Society: Toward a More Explanatory Social Science. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Press.
de Waal, Frans B. M. and Sarah F. Brosnan. 2006. “Simple and Complex Reciprocity in Primates.” In Cooperation in Primates and Humans: Mechanisms and Evolution, edited by P. Kappeler and C. P. van Schaik, 85–106. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-28277-7_5
———. 2009. The Age of Empathy: Nature’s Lessons for a Kinder Society. New York: Crown Publishing.
Wuthnow, Robert. 1984. Meaning and the Moral Order. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.
Zillig, M. 1928. “Einstellung und Aussage.” Zeitschrift für Psychologie 106: 58–106.
Published
2018-05-15
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Section
Special Section Article
License
Equinox Publishing Ltd.
How to Cite
Turner, J. H. (2018). Using Neurosociology and Evolutionary Sociology to Explain the Origin and Evolution of Religions. Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion, 4(1), 7-29. https://doi.org/10.1558/jcsr.35721
