Broad supernatural punishment but not moralizing high gods precede the evolution of political complexity in Austronesia

Proceedings of the Royal Society B Vol/Iss. 282 Published In Pages: ??
By Watts, Joseph, Greenhill, Simon J. , Atkinson, Quentin D., Currie, Thomas E., Bulbulia, Joseph, Gray, Russell D.

Hypothesis

High political complexity has coevolved with moralizing high gods (2, 5)

Note

The analysis compared an independent model (traits evolved separately) and dependent model (traits coevolved) for the evolution of the political complexity and moralizing high gods. The results supported a dependent relationship, even though the traits are not strictly coupled in the raw data. (Out of six cultures with moralizing high gods, three were politically complex.)

Test

Test NameSupportSignificanceCoefficientTail
reversible-jump Markov chain Monte Carlo analysisSupportedNot ApplicableBayes factor = 3.60UNKNOWN