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RITUAL ANIMAL:IMITATION & COHESION IN EVOLUTION SOCIAL COMPLEXITY
A radical exploration of how rituals have influenced history over thousands of years.
From infancy, we copy those around us in order to be like others, to be one with the tribe. Other primates will copy behaviour that leads to transparent benefits, such as access to food, but only humans promiscuously copy actions that have no obvious instrumental purpose. The copying of causally opaque behaviour (rituals) has allowed cultural groups to proliferate over time and space. The frequency and emotional intensity of ritual performances constrains the scale and structure of cultural groups. Rare, traumatic rituals (e.g. painful initiations) produce very strong social cohesion in small, relational groups such as military battalions or local cults whereas daily and weekly rituals (e.g. collective praying in mosques, churches, and synagogues) produce diffuse cohesion in indefinitely expandable communities. This pioneering study presents a theory of how these two 'ritual modes' have influenced the course of human history over many thousands of years and continue to shape the groups
we live in today.
The resulting programme of research offers a radically new paradigm for the social sciences, one that bridges across disciplinary silos, samples the full diversity of the world's populations, and plumbs our richest sources of information about cultural systems, past and present. In doing so, leading anthropologist Harvey Whitehouse shows how we can modify the way we tackle some of the most pressing challenges of our day, from violent extremism to global heating. All the problems humanity creates are ultimately problems of cooperation. Solving these problems will require social glue. Whitehouse suggests various practical ways in which our growing knowledge about the role of ritual in group bonding can help us achieve a more peaceful and prosperous future, not only for ourselves but for all species who share the planet with us.
From infancy, we copy those around us in order to be like others, to be one with the tribe. Other primates will copy behaviour that leads to transparent benefits, such as access to food, but only humans promiscuously copy actions that have no obvious instrumental purpose. The copying of causally opaque behaviour (rituals) has allowed cultural groups to proliferate over time and space. The frequency and emotional intensity of ritual performances constrains the scale and structure of cultural groups. Rare, traumatic rituals (e.g. painful initiations) produce very strong social cohesion in small, relational groups such as military battalions or local cults whereas daily and weekly rituals (e.g. collective praying in mosques, churches, and synagogues) produce diffuse cohesion in indefinitely expandable communities. This pioneering study presents a theory of how these two 'ritual modes' have influenced the course of human history over many thousands of years and continue to shape the groups
we live in today.
The resulting programme of research offers a radically new paradigm for the social sciences, one that bridges across disciplinary silos, samples the full diversity of the world's populations, and plumbs our richest sources of information about cultural systems, past and present. In doing so, leading anthropologist Harvey Whitehouse shows how we can modify the way we tackle some of the most pressing challenges of our day, from violent extremism to global heating. All the problems humanity creates are ultimately problems of cooperation. Solving these problems will require social glue. Whitehouse suggests various practical ways in which our growing knowledge about the role of ritual in group bonding can help us achieve a more peaceful and prosperous future, not only for ourselves but for all species who share the planet with us.
252 pages, Hardcover
Published November 25, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 6, 2024
وفقًا لدوركهايم (1912)، فإن الناس في كل مكان يدركون، ولو بشكل غامض، وجود معركة داخلية معقدة ودرامية تدور رحاها داخلهم، تشبه إلى حد ما الصراع بين الشخصيات الخيالية الشهيرة لروبرت لويس ستيفنسون، الدكتور جيكل والسيد هايد.
وصف دوركهايم جنسنا البشري بأنه إنسان متناقض، ممزق إلى الأبد بين الدوافع النفسية والعضوية وبين الالتزامات والواجبات الملقاة على عاتقنا بحكم المركز والمنصب. باعتبارنا حاملي الأدوار الاجتماعية، فإننا نخضع لنظام اجتماعي يتطلب تسامي ميولنا المعادية للمجتمع من أجل خير الجميع. ولكن كان هناك أيضًا جانب آخر لمفهوم دوركهايم عن الإنسان المتناقض، والذي تناوله طلابه بشكل أكبر، مثل هيرتز (1960) وموس (1979)، وورثتهم الفكريين مثل دوغلاس (1966) وبلوخ (1992). . من حيث أجسادهم، يمر البشر بمراحل الحياة التي لا رجعة فيها: الولادة، والنمو، والتكاثر، والشيخوخة، والموت. يشكل هذا التقدم الذي لا رجعة فيه، بالنسبة للدوركهايميين، جوهر ما يعتبره الناس في كل مكان دنيويًا وعابرًا. وعلى النقيض من ذلك، تتمتع المؤسسات الاجتماعية، مثل النظام الملكي، بديمومة نظرية: حيث يموت الملوك الأفراد ويتم استبدالهم، ولكن الملكية نفسها تستمر. وفقًا لدوركهايم، يوفر الدين والطقوس وسيلة لتصور وتنمية الارتباط بالجودة الدائمة والمتسامية للمجتمع. الطقوس تتجاوزنا بثلاثة جوانب: إنها تعيش بعدنا ... نحن منخرطون فيها اجتماعيًا بدلاً من خلقها بأنفسنا ... تنظم سلوكنا.
.
Harvey Whitehouse
The Ritual Animal
Translated By #Maher_Razouk
وصف دوركهايم جنسنا البشري بأنه إنسان متناقض، ممزق إلى الأبد بين الدوافع النفسية والعضوية وبين الالتزامات والواجبات الملقاة على عاتقنا بحكم المركز والمنصب. باعتبارنا حاملي الأدوار الاجتماعية، فإننا نخضع لنظام اجتماعي يتطلب تسامي ميولنا المعادية للمجتمع من أجل خير الجميع. ولكن كان هناك أيضًا جانب آخر لمفهوم دوركهايم عن الإنسان المتناقض، والذي تناوله طلابه بشكل أكبر، مثل هيرتز (1960) وموس (1979)، وورثتهم الفكريين مثل دوغلاس (1966) وبلوخ (1992). . من حيث أجسادهم، يمر البشر بمراحل الحياة التي لا رجعة فيها: الولادة، والنمو، والتكاثر، والشيخوخة، والموت. يشكل هذا التقدم الذي لا رجعة فيه، بالنسبة للدوركهايميين، جوهر ما يعتبره الناس في كل مكان دنيويًا وعابرًا. وعلى النقيض من ذلك، تتمتع المؤسسات الاجتماعية، مثل النظام الملكي، بديمومة نظرية: حيث يموت الملوك الأفراد ويتم استبدالهم، ولكن الملكية نفسها تستمر. وفقًا لدوركهايم، يوفر الدين والطقوس وسيلة لتصور وتنمية الارتباط بالجودة الدائمة والمتسامية للمجتمع. الطقوس تتجاوزنا بثلاثة جوانب: إنها تعيش بعدنا ... نحن منخرطون فيها اجتماعيًا بدلاً من خلقها بأنفسنا ... تنظم سلوكنا.
.
Harvey Whitehouse
The Ritual Animal
Translated By #Maher_Razouk
September 9, 2022
People talk about tribalization and polarization of society and the Internet.
To understand phenomena like arousal of vaccination "skepticism" or arousal of anti-scientism in the humanity departments of the Western universities we have to go deeper than talking loosely about tribalization.
We have to understand how traumatic common experiences create these tribes, how they are recreated by rituals, and what innate human features drive the people to create and join such tribes. It is a multidisciplinary project with psychology and anthropology very much at the centrum.
This book is a good starting point. Not an easy book to read because it is very much unfinished research.
To understand phenomena like arousal of vaccination "skepticism" or arousal of anti-scientism in the humanity departments of the Western universities we have to go deeper than talking loosely about tribalization.
We have to understand how traumatic common experiences create these tribes, how they are recreated by rituals, and what innate human features drive the people to create and join such tribes. It is a multidisciplinary project with psychology and anthropology very much at the centrum.
This book is a good starting point. Not an easy book to read because it is very much unfinished research.
May 24, 2022
A mixed bag, but definitely much closer to 'weak' than 'great'.
The author has a few interesting ideas, but those ideas are very much mixed together with some terrible/stupid ideas. Some of the ideas/concepts the author appears to find most critical/important, and thus repeatedly returns to, are ideas/concepts I tend to think are doing a lot more work, and 'explaining' much more stuff, than is in any way, shape or form justified by the evidence provided. The author in my opinion repeatedly implicitly makes causal inferences and inferences about effect sizes for which he has close to zero support, judging by the evidence he himself has chosen to present in the text (much of this evidence is, perhaps surprisingly, based on his own research into these topics) in favor of the arguments he's making.
But there's also some stuff in here which was worth reading. Not completely terrible, but would I have chosen to read the book if I'd have known what I know now? No, I would not.
The author has a few interesting ideas, but those ideas are very much mixed together with some terrible/stupid ideas. Some of the ideas/concepts the author appears to find most critical/important, and thus repeatedly returns to, are ideas/concepts I tend to think are doing a lot more work, and 'explaining' much more stuff, than is in any way, shape or form justified by the evidence provided. The author in my opinion repeatedly implicitly makes causal inferences and inferences about effect sizes for which he has close to zero support, judging by the evidence he himself has chosen to present in the text (much of this evidence is, perhaps surprisingly, based on his own research into these topics) in favor of the arguments he's making.
But there's also some stuff in here which was worth reading. Not completely terrible, but would I have chosen to read the book if I'd have known what I know now? No, I would not.
March 10, 2025
integral to understanding social evolution
This book comprehensively covers current study of how rituals develop and impact human society. I do not mean religious rituals exclusively, but rituals holistically- from how we greet each other and watch sports to how we worship. It is an excellent analysis of the evolutionary and social origins and mechanisms of ritual behavior.
This book comprehensively covers current study of how rituals develop and impact human society. I do not mean religious rituals exclusively, but rituals holistically- from how we greet each other and watch sports to how we worship. It is an excellent analysis of the evolutionary and social origins and mechanisms of ritual behavior.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews