The Evolution of Ritual, Cognition, and Modes of Religiosity During the Agricultural Transition

Abstract

What role did ritual play in the transition from mobile hunter-gatherer groups to sedentary agriculturists? In the context of several recent archaeological and ethnographic research examinations into the connection between ritual activity and group cohesion, archaeologists have begun to re-evaluate the role of ritual during the initial agricultural transition in southwest Asia. By tracing the evolution of rituals, as well as examining the ritual, economic and social changes associated with the agricultural transition, this chapter asserts that the transition to agriculture is characterized by the emergence of new, hierarchical and standardized ritual practices. In doing so, it is proposed that the selection of hierarchical, highly prescribed rituals played an essential part in generating the required level of social cohesion in the context of the myriad of challenges facing early agriculturalist communities and paralleled a wider change in human group dynamics towards a greater degree of hierarchy and inequality, as the agricultural transition progressed. This work brings together insights from evolutionary theory, cultural evolution, prehistoric archaeology and the cognitive anthropology of ritual to generate a new perspective on the evolution of ritual during the agricultural transition.