1. The Roots of Religiosity: So Just What Can We Learn About Religiosity By Studying Animals?

2. Three components of “culture”
What Should We Look At?
Three components of “culture”
Animal correlates?
Material
Behavioral
Ideational
Animal artifacts (nests, food remains, etc.) Ritualized behaviors Animal cognition and emotion

3. Fixed Action Pattern appropriate response(s)) specific outcome
Intention
Movement
(or other releaser”)
appropriate
response(s))
specific
outcome
elicits
leads to
FAPs vary among species, but are shared among all of the members of a species

4. Stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) Mating Behavior

5. The “Behavioral Releaser”

6. Elements of Ritualized Animal Behaviors
Isopraxism – performing the same behaviors as others
Repetition – performing the same behavior over and over
Reenactment – performing a previously learned behavior at a later time
Deception – behaving in a manner that leads others to the wrong conclusion
Tropism – automatically reacting to a specific stimulus with a specific behavior

7. Ritualized Animal Behaviors
A complex sequence of animal displays that helps to coordinate social life

8. Greylag goose (Anser anser) goslings imprinting on their mother
Goslings imprinted on
Konrad Lorenz
(1903 – 1989)

9. Evolutionary Relationships
The more closely related two animals are, the more similarities they will show

10. Chimpanzee Homologues
Our closest living relative (?)
98-99% genetically identical
“model” for early hominin evolution?
A young chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes)

11. Religious Behaviors Among Humans

12. “How does one recognize a religion
“How does one recognize a religion? Why does one say that certain behavior is religious? The answer lies in the fundamental pattern, or structure, which the layman and the ethnographer alike recognize when they look at a society and which, whenever it is found, is called ‘religious,’ despite the manifold diversity of its forms.”
Anthony F.C. Wallace Religion: An Anthropological View 1966, page 52

13. 13 categories of religious behavior
prayer
music
physiological exercises
exhortation
reciting the code
simulation
mana
taboo
feasts
sacrifice
congregation
inspiration
symbolism
… the “smallest religious things” of a society

14. prayer (addressing the supernatural)
methods are typical to a particular culture
conventional posture
standardized gestures
stereotyped speech
emotional tone varies
can be directed to a variety of supernatural entities

15. music (drumming, singing, playing instruments)
music often serves as the vehicle of prayer
helps to emphasize the distinction between the sacred and the profane
can differ from non- religious styles of music

16. physiological exercises (manipulation of the psychological state)
four major methods
drugs
sensory deprivation
mortification of the flesh
pain
sleeplessness
fatigue
deprivation
food
water
air

17. exhortation (addressing another human being)
one person addresses another as a representative of divinity
God(s)
“clergy”
“laity”

18. reciting the code (mythology, morality, and other aspects of the belief system)
expresses core beliefs
may contain statements about
pantheon
cosmology
myths
injunctions
often stereotypical

19. simulation (imitating things)
based on the “law of sympathy” between similar objects
divination
scapulamancy
tea leaves
ordeals
“scapegoat”
voodoo doll

20. mana (touching things)
involves the passage of “power” from a donor to a receiver
laying on of hands
relics
churinga

21. taboo (not touching things)
avoidance of specific persons and objects because of differences in power or purity
may regulate access to
food
sexual partners
caste members
chiefs

22. feasts (eating and drinking)
the “sacred meal”
involves consumption of materials that contain a supernatural power or force which will be of benefit if consumed under the proper conditions
Eucharist (Communion)
totem feast

23. sacrifice (immolation, offerings, fees)
give up something of value to achieve a particular purpose
grave goods
animal/human sacrifice
“first fruits” ceremonies
tithing

24. congregation (processions, meetings, and convocations)
social aspect of religious behavior
promotes communitas
rites of intensification

25. inspiration (extraordinary experiences due to divine power)
revelation
conversion
possession
mystical ecstasy

26. symbolism (manufacture and use of symbolic objects)
represent the deities and/or values, events, relationships, etc. with deities
compressed statements of religious principles and beliefs
often believed to be imbued with mana

27. 13 categories of religious behavior
prayer
music
physiological exercises
exhortation
reciting the code
simulation
mana
taboo
feasts
sacrifice
congregation
inspiration
symbolism
… the “smallest religious things” of a society

28. rituals
composed of varying numbers and sequences of the 13 categories of religious behavior