In Harvey Whitehouse’s book (2021), he argues that humans are ritual animals, and that rituals can be the glue shaping group bonds. Whitehouse argues further that rituals are embedded in our routines and have become habitual. In this article, I add the idea of embodiment and social representations as a supplement to Whitehouse’s studies of rituals, group identities, and their interactions in society. In my view, these ideas may answer the following questions: 1) why people still practice group rituals, even though they are not attached to the group; 2) why people are ready to die defending their group even though they are not active in the community and rarely practice group rituals; and 3) why people are so fanatical about their religion that they are ready to die defending it, and how to alleviate such fanaticism.
{"title":"Representing Group Rituals","authors":"I. E. Putra","doi":"10.1558/jcsr.22038","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/jcsr.22038","url":null,"abstract":"In Harvey Whitehouse’s book (2021), he argues that humans are ritual animals, and that rituals can be the glue shaping group bonds. Whitehouse argues further that rituals are embedded in our routines and have become habitual. In this article, I add the idea of embodiment and social representations as a supplement to Whitehouse’s studies of rituals, group identities, and their interactions in society. In my view, these ideas may answer the following questions: 1) why people still practice group rituals, even though they are not attached to the group; 2) why people are ready to die defending their group even though they are not active in the community and rarely practice group rituals; and 3) why people are so fanatical about their religion that they are ready to die defending it, and how to alleviate such fanaticism.","PeriodicalId":29718,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41365254","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Rituals are a means of regulation – they are a means for maintaining coherence and attaining long-term goals, including social coherence. But does their efficacy depend entirely, or at all, on their opacity? In this requested commentary on Harvey Whitehouse’s new book, The Ritual Animal, I discuss the utility of costly rituals in an evolutionary context, and suggest that causal opacity is only one, potentially substitutable cost. I relate this to the urgent topical concerns of polarization and of regulating sustainability globally.
{"title":"(Most) Algorithmic Animal","authors":"J. Bryson","doi":"10.1558/jcsr.23612","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/jcsr.23612","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000\u0000\u0000Rituals are a means of regulation – they are a means for maintaining coherence and attaining long-term goals, including social coherence. But does their efficacy depend entirely, or at all, on their opacity? In this requested commentary on Harvey Whitehouse’s new book, The Ritual Animal, I discuss the utility of costly rituals in an evolutionary context, and suggest that causal opacity is only one, potentially substitutable cost. I relate this to the urgent topical concerns of polarization and of regulating sustainability globally.\u0000\u0000\u0000","PeriodicalId":29718,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-11-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41468514","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this commentary, we discuss two aspects of The Ritual Animal’s (2021) rich and multidimensional framework which may be further developed: the role of music and euphoric rituals within Harvey Whitehouse’s modes theory, and the use of the landscape model for studying sociocultural systems. We note the strong, cross-cultural association of music and religious rituals, consider the suitability of music for such practices, and suggest further research on how the use of music may accommodate both imagistic and doctrinal rituals. We then describe the social landscape model used by Whitehouse and consider his proposal to extend the model through the consideration of multiple landscapes at different levels. We accept his suggestion to explicitly include underlying and overlying networks of inputs but argue that since the interacting networks are not external to but constitutive of the landscape, a single landscape with multiple causal, constraining, and constitutive networks may better capture the integrated nature of social systems.
{"title":"Rituals, Music, and the Landscape Metaphor","authors":"Dorothy O. Shilton, E. Jablonka","doi":"10.1558/jcsr.22389","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/jcsr.22389","url":null,"abstract":"In this commentary, we discuss two aspects of The Ritual Animal’s (2021) rich and multidimensional framework which may be further developed: the role of music and euphoric rituals within Harvey Whitehouse’s modes theory, and the use of the landscape model for studying sociocultural systems. We note the strong, cross-cultural association of music and religious rituals, consider the suitability of music for such practices, and suggest further research on how the use of music may accommodate both imagistic and doctrinal rituals. We then describe the social landscape model used by Whitehouse and consider his proposal to extend the model through the consideration of multiple landscapes at different levels. We accept his suggestion to explicitly include underlying and overlying networks of inputs but argue that since the interacting networks are not external to but constitutive of the landscape, a single landscape with multiple causal, constraining, and constitutive networks may better capture the integrated nature of social systems.","PeriodicalId":29718,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49139336","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Lexical Primes and The Ritual Animal","authors":"A. Geertz","doi":"10.1558/jcsr.23953","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/jcsr.23953","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":29718,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45958308","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
As a prehistoric archaeologist working on the Neolithic of southwest Asia, I focus on Harvey Whitehouse’s evolutionary theory of the emergence of the doctrinal mode of religiosity in the context of the emergence of “agricultural intensity” and “social inequality” in the Neolithic period, and quite specifically in the latest phase of the occupation of the settlement of Çatalhöyük in central Turkey. I find those difficult phrases ill-defined in the book, and in the author’s published papers on which the book depends. And I contend that the evidence for intensive agricultural production and of institutionalized social inequality is to be found post-Neolithic and associated with the emergence of the first urban societies. I believe that Whitehouse’s idea of the emergence of doctrinal religiosity needs to be argued in the context of the earliest (literate) civilizations of southern Mesopotamia and Egypt.
{"title":"Doctrines of Neolithic Religiosity","authors":"Trevor Watkins","doi":"10.1558/jcsr.22542","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/jcsr.22542","url":null,"abstract":"As a prehistoric archaeologist working on the Neolithic of southwest Asia, I focus on Harvey Whitehouse’s evolutionary theory of the emergence of the doctrinal mode of religiosity in the context of the emergence of “agricultural intensity” and “social inequality” in the Neolithic period, and quite specifically in the latest phase of the occupation of the settlement of Çatalhöyük in central Turkey. I find those difficult phrases ill-defined in the book, and in the author’s published papers on which the book depends. And I contend that the evidence for intensive agricultural production and of institutionalized social inequality is to be found post-Neolithic and associated with the emergence of the first urban societies. I believe that Whitehouse’s idea of the emergence of doctrinal religiosity needs to be argued in the context of the earliest (literate) civilizations of southern Mesopotamia and Egypt.","PeriodicalId":29718,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44989012","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Cognitive Templates and LGAT Seminars","authors":"A. Geertz","doi":"10.1558/jcsr.23300","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/jcsr.23300","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":29718,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42546666","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Fundamental to the traditional, Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR) mind-based model is that the human mind perceives the world through the use of ontological categories. These categories are often defined as templates, which are associated with the recognition of basic ontological categories organized hierarchically due to evolutionarily sourced strategic connections: PERSON > ANIMAL > PLANT > ARTIFACT > OBJECT. If the field of CSR is to use such foundational concepts as MCIs, ontological categories, socially strategic and inference generation, we must first test and verify that this hierarchical ontological schema is in fact valid, especially given some recent shifts away from the mind-based model. The goal of this study was to analyze participant preferences for different aspects of the CSR mind-based model, such as template categories and socially strategic inferences. To test this, participants saw four conditions, each with a variety of images that reflected these categories and inferences. Main findings saw no preference between hypothesized template categories, preference for socially strategic images within the same category, and preference for non-threatening images over threatening images of the same category. The latter two findings (socially strategic; threat avoidance) confirm core theories and recent work in CSR; the former finding (no hierarchy preference) calls into question the nature and use of ontological categories.
{"title":"Categorical Preference of the Mind","authors":"Michael Miller, Jill C. Thorson, P. Robertson","doi":"10.1558/jcsr.20462","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/jcsr.20462","url":null,"abstract":"Fundamental to the traditional, Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR) mind-based model is that the human mind perceives the world through the use of ontological categories. These categories are often defined as templates, which are associated with the recognition of basic ontological categories organized hierarchically due to evolutionarily sourced strategic connections: PERSON > ANIMAL > PLANT > ARTIFACT > OBJECT. If the field of CSR is to use such foundational concepts as MCIs, ontological categories, socially strategic and inference generation, we must first test and verify that this hierarchical ontological schema is in fact valid, especially given some recent shifts away from the mind-based model. The goal of this study was to analyze participant preferences for different aspects of the CSR mind-based model, such as template categories and socially strategic inferences. To test this, participants saw four conditions, each with a variety of images that reflected these categories and inferences. Main findings saw no preference between hypothesized template categories, preference for socially strategic images within the same category, and preference for non-threatening images over threatening images of the same category. The latter two findings (socially strategic; threat avoidance) confirm core theories and recent work in CSR; the former finding (no hierarchy preference) calls into question the nature and use of ontological categories.","PeriodicalId":29718,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45715626","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Social and Cognitive Perspectives on the Sermon on the Mount, edited by Rikard Riotto, Colleen Shantz, and Petri Luomanen, Equinox, 2021. Studies in Ancient Religion and Culture series. vii+350 pp. $39.95 USD ISBN: 978-1781794227
{"title":"Social and Cognitive Perspectives on the Sermon on the Mount, edited by Rikard Riotto, Colleen Shantz, and Petri Luomanen.","authors":"Daniel Ullucci","doi":"10.1558/jcsr.22140","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/jcsr.22140","url":null,"abstract":"Social and Cognitive Perspectives on the Sermon on the Mount, edited by Rikard Riotto, Colleen Shantz, and Petri Luomanen, Equinox, 2021. Studies in Ancient Religion and Culture series. vii+350 pp. $39.95 USD ISBN: 978-1781794227","PeriodicalId":29718,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44628946","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Impact of Ritual on Child Cognition, by Veronika Rybanska","authors":"Gabriella Óturai","doi":"10.1558/jcsr.20823","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/jcsr.20823","url":null,"abstract":"The Impact of Ritual on Child Cognition, by Veronika RybanskaBloomsbury Publishing, 2020. ix + 203 pages, $ 103.50. ISBN: 9781350108929","PeriodicalId":29718,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43396514","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
There is evidence that dopaminergic excitation contributes to certain religious experiences however, a natural mechanism by which hyperdopaminergia may be elicited in normative Christian contexts remains elusive. Panksepp’s dopamine-mediated “SEEKING system” offers a plausible endogenous defense against psychological stress, and is activated by rewarding stimuli, so it was hypothesized that significant psychological stress followed by social reward would prompt SEEKING arousal in most healthy individuals. Through a review of 121 data sources describing a prevalent “personal development” seminar – using deductive thematic analysis – it was found that participants endure significant psychological stress for days before it is replaced with love/acceptance/affirmation and that most participants experience a powerful affective state, with effects consistent with SEEKING arousal. Because contemplating one’s sinfulness may elicit acute psychological stress, and Christian salvation may provide a sense of love/acceptance/affirmation, a natural mechanism for stimulating SEEKING arousal, and inducing a religious experience, in a Christian context is conceived.
{"title":"SEEKING God’s Presence","authors":"J. Hunter","doi":"10.1558/jcsr.22411","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1558/jcsr.22411","url":null,"abstract":"There is evidence that dopaminergic excitation contributes to certain religious experiences however, a natural mechanism by which hyperdopaminergia may be elicited in normative Christian contexts remains elusive. Panksepp’s dopamine-mediated “SEEKING system” offers a plausible endogenous defense against psychological stress, and is activated by rewarding stimuli, so it was hypothesized that significant psychological stress followed by social reward would prompt SEEKING arousal in most healthy individuals. Through a review of 121 data sources describing a prevalent “personal development” seminar – using deductive thematic analysis – it was found that participants endure significant psychological stress for days before it is replaced with love/acceptance/affirmation and that most participants experience a powerful affective state, with effects consistent with SEEKING arousal. Because contemplating one’s sinfulness may elicit acute psychological stress, and Christian salvation may provide a sense of love/acceptance/affirmation, a natural mechanism for stimulating SEEKING arousal, and inducing a religious experience, in a Christian context is conceived.","PeriodicalId":29718,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45668630","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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