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The Religious Mind and the Evolution of Religion Review of General Psychology Copyright 2006 by the American Psychological Association 2006, Vol. 10, No. 4, 346–364 1089-2680/06/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/1089-2680.10.4.346 The Religious Mind and the Evolution of Religion Matt J. Rossano Southeastern Louisiana University This article summarizes the literature on the religious mind and connects it to archeological and anthropological data on the evolution of religion. These connections suggest a three stage model in the evolution of religion: One, the earliest form of religion (pre-Upper Paleolithic [UP]) would have been restricted to ecstatic rituals used to facilitate social bonding; two, the transition to UP religion was marked by the emergence of shamanistic healing rituals; and, three, the cave art, elaborate burials, and other artifacts associated with the UP represent the first evidence of ancestor worship and the emergence of theological narratives of the supernatural. The emergence of UP religion was associated with the move from egalitarian to transegalitarian hunter-gatherers. Keywords: evolution of religion, Upper Paleolithic, religious mind, shamanism William James (1902/1961) argued that the the other) provide reasonable boundaries for mystical experience was the foundation for re- framing theoretical models. ligion. Nearly a century after James, research The purpose of this article is to summarize the into the neurological and cognitive basis of re- current research on the religious mind and connect ligion has advanced rapidly (Barrett, 2000; it to archeological and anthropological data on the Boyer & Ramble, 2001; d’Aquili & Newberg, evolution of religion. The first section reviews the 1999; Lewis-Williams, 2002; Newberg, d’Aquili literature on and builds a general framework of the & Rause, 2001; Norenzayan & Atran, 2002; religious mind. The second section uses this Ramachandran & Blakslee, 1998, chap. 9). Par- framework, in conjunction with archeological and alleling this work has been that addressing the anthropological data, to construct a model of the evolutionary origins of religion (Atran, 2002; evolution of religion. A three-stage model is pro- Boyer, 2001; Hayden, 2003; Sosis & Alcorta, posed with supportive evidence and hypotheses 2003; Wilson, 2002). While archeological evi- for future testing outlined. dence and anthropological analogies can be used to formulate evolutionary models of reli- The Evolved Religious Mind: Mental gion, these models are limited by the fact that behavior and belief do not fossilize, and current Attributes Giving Rise to Religion hunter-gatherers cannot be uncritically accepted Defining religion is notoriously controversial. as relics of our hominid past. Using the reli- For present purposes, religion is defined as be- gious mind as a basis for formulating evolution- liefs or actions predicated on the existence of ary models provides another distinct and con- supernatural entities or forces with powers of verging evidentiary line complementing those agency that can intervene in or otherwise affect of archeology and anthropology. Though the human affairs. This definition is a slightly mod- mental lives of our hominid ancestors cannot be ified version of one used by sociologist Steve known with certainty, the cognitive capacities Bruce (2002, p. 2), which follows comfortably of chimpanzees (at one extreme) and humans (at in the well-established conceptual tradition of religious anthropologists such as Edward B. Tylor (1871) and James George Frazer (1890/1941). Recently, considerable research has focused The author thanks Dr. David Sloan Wilson and two anon- on the mental attributes that incline humans ymous reviewers for thoughtful critiques of the manuscript. toward religious beliefs (Alcorta & Sosis, 2006; Correspondence concerning this article should be ad- dressed to Matt J. Rossano, Department of Psychology, P.O. Arglye, 2000; Atran, 2002; Boyer, 2001; Hay- Box 10831, Southeastern Louisiana University, Hammond, den, 2003; Hinde, 1999; Lewis-Williams, LA 70402. E-mail: [email protected] 2002). Though investigators vary in their per- 346 RELIGIOUS MIND 347 spectives, they converge on four mental at- goals. Tomasello and Call (1997) have, in fact, tributes that appear to provide the cognitive argued that this is the critical cognitive distinc- foundations for the emergence of religion: one, tion separating humans from other primates. agency detection and causal attribution; two, the For our hominid ancestors, the ability to at- social and emotional commitments of group tribute agency to another would have been highly living; three, narrative formation and the emer- adaptive. From the time of Homo erectus/ergaster gence of existential anxieties; and, four, the (about 1.8 million years ago), hominids were of a ecstatic or mystical experience. Each of these physical size and a level of technical and social attributes is an evolutionary extension, built sophistication such that their primary competitors upon precursors found in many other species, were most likely other hominids (Alexander, especially our nonhuman primate relatives. 1989; Flinn, Geary, & Ward, 2005; Lewin, 1998). This competition would have encouraged the for- Agency Detection and Causal Attribution mation of larger groups with increasing numbers of non-kin, as well as the formation of coalitions Determining cause-effect relations is an and alliances both within and between groups adaptive mental function found in many crea- (Aiello & Dunbar, 1993; McBrearty & Brooks, tures (e.g., Hunt, 1996; O’Connell & Dunbar, 2000). In this vastly complicated social world, the 2005; Premack, 1976; Premack & Premack, ability to read the goals and intentions of others 1994). Agency detection (or theory of mind) is would have been crucial. A distinct advantage a form of causal attribution whereby an organ- would have gone to those of our ancestors who ism assigns another’s actions to an internal state could quickly and accurately recognize the signals such as a belief, desire, or intention. A rudimen- associated with others who intended to harm or tary form of this mental capacity was likely help. Thus, we would expect predator/protector present in our earliest hominid ancestors and agency detection mechanisms to be trip-wired may be present in great apes today (Byrne & such that only partial or scant input is required to Whiten, 1991; Gallup, 1970, 1982; Hare, Call, engage the mechanism. It makes considerable & Tomasello, 2001; however, see also Pon- adaptive sense to overassign agency given that the vinelli & Eddy, 1996; Ponvinelli & Prince, false alarm cost would be far outweighed by the 1998 for a more cautious assessment). benefit of the occasional hit (Guthrie, 1993). For Developmental studies have shown that the example, rustling leaves usually signal nothing ability to attribute agency to others develops more than the wind, but a single failure to recog- incrementally over the first five or six years of nize them as signaling the stealthy approach of a life (see Baron-Cohen, 2005; Gopnik, 1999, for malicious enemy or hungry predator could be life reviews). By around 12 months, infants show threatening. Survival is better served by overas- dishabituation to the actions of agents who vi- signing agency than underassigning. olate goal-directedness and, throughout most of Since it is by evolutionary design prone to infancy, youngsters appear to expect that human overassignment, the human agency-detecting actions will be goal-directed (Baldwin, Baird, capacity was ripe for cultural manipulation and Saylor, & Clark, 2001; Meltzoff, 1995). At 14 supernatural extension. Natural processes with months, infants work to establish and maintain no obvious explanation—storms, illness, animal joint attention and begin to develop an under- behavior, and so forth—were all prime candi- standing of pretence. Two-year-old children dates for the actions of a supernatural agent. show evidence of using mental state words and The notion of powerful natural, animal, and by age three they appear to understand the re- human/animal spirits is nearly universal in tra- lationship between that act of seeing and the ditional, shamanistic religions (Hayden, 2003, state of knowing. By age four or five, children pp. 57–60; McClenon, 1997; Winkelman, have a sensitivity to another’s mind in that they 1990). Evidence from Upper Paleolithic (UP) understand that another can have ideas that are cave paintings suggests that these ideas may incongruent with reality (Wimmer & Perner, extend back tens of thousands of years (Clottes 1983). These findings suggest that from a very & Louis-Williams, 1998; Dickson, 1990; Leroi- early age humans treat other humans as inten- Gourhan, 1968). Animal or ancestral spirits tional agents, whose actions are directed by who monitor people’s actions for moral integ- mental constructs such as beliefs, desires, and rity and punish those who offend (often through 348 ROSSANO acts of nature) are equally common motifs (At- Religious rituals can also serve as “costly-to- ran, 2002; Boyer, 2001; Hayden, 2003). fake” signs of social commitment (Irons, 1996, 2001; Sosis, 2000; Sosis & Bressler, 2003; So- Social/Emotional Commitments sis & Ruffle, 2003). For example, the initiation rituals of traditional societies frequently involve A second important aspect of the evolved rigorous physical and emotional trials (Atran, religious mind is the capacity for social com- 2002, p. 153; Boyer, 2001, pp. 243–246; Gluck- mitment—a capacity that in humans has reach lick, 2001; Young, 1965). These trials publicly
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