Talk and Tradition: Why the Least Interesting Components of Religion May Be the Most Evolutionarily Important

Abstract

Many evolutionary explanations of religion tend to focus on the strange and exotic aspects of religion assumed to be the result of weird beliefs in things that do not exist. In contrast, we propose that religious behavior is distinguished from non-religious behavior by one of the most familiar and mundane of human behaviors: talk. Specifically, we suggest that it is the making, and communicating acceptance, of supernatural claims that distinguishes religious behavior. Given that talk is a form of communication aimed at influencing the behavior of others, we propose that proximate explanations of religion focus on the identifiable social effects of religious behavior. Given that the talk identified as religious was almost certainly transmitted from ancestors to descendants during recent human evolution, we suggest that ultimate explanations of religion focus on the consequences of traditional religious behavior transmitted through a multitude of generations. Our hypothesis is that religious traditions were perpetuated because they increased cooperation among co-descendants by communicating the willingness to accept the influence of each other and their common ancestors.