Religion and Cultural Survival

Abstract

The role of religious practices in cultural evolution and the interrelations of religious and other cultural practices are the topics of this paper. This paper provides a descriptive analysis of the social and historical conditions of which religious practices have been generated. Additionally, the relation of religious practices to the outcome of cultural survival is discussed. Our analysis draws upon a number of distinctions: cultural vs. noncultural practices, religious vs. nonreligious, relig ious vs. moral, and moral vs. other cultural practices. We address the significance of these distinctions to the role of religious practices in cultural survival and conclude with a discussion of the challenges facing behavior analysts as cultural engineers. Religious practices of one type or another are aspects of all cultures. Traditionally, religion has been understood as a structure established for the guidance and comfort of persons who lack other means of escaping from the exigencies of life. Sociologists, anthropologists, theologians, and others have written extensively on the subject. Researchers studying the sociology of religion have appealed to theoretical perspectives, such as "rational choice theories," in an effort to understand religion's influence in our society (Batson, Schoenrade, & Ventis, 1993; Becker & Eiesland, 1997; Sherkat & Ellison, 1999). However, little elaboration as to the nature of religious practices, the circumstances responsible for their stability over time, and their relevance to cultural survival from a naturalistic, behavioral perspective has surfaced. The prevalence of religious practices and beliefs across all cultures and history warrants attention from behavioral psychologists; and such scrutiny has begun to emerge from within the behavior analytic community. A number of these formulations (e.g., Biglan, 1995; Glenn, 1989) have benefited from interdisciplinary contacts, significant among these have been commerce with behavioral anthropology (Harris, 1979). Others have proceeded on more specifically behavioral grounds (e.g. , Hayes, 1988; Kantor, 1982; Malott, 1988; Skinner, 1972). Nevertheless, whereas the analYSis of cultural practices