Hypotheses
- Small-scale societies will believe that ancestral spirits are capable of harming the living.White, Claire - The dead may kill you: Do ancestor spirit beliefs promote cooperation in tra..., 1 - 1 Variables
Using 57 cultures from the Human Relations Area Files database, this paper examines the function and effectiveness of the belief of punitive ancestors in small-scale societies. The authors found that belief in dangerous ancestral entities is widespread and common and that harm is preventable through ritualized mortuary practices. The authors concluded that the fear of ancestral spirits did not promote social cooperation or inhibit self-interest behavior, contrary to the supernatural punishment hypothesis.
Related Hypotheses Cite More By Author - Societies will believe that ancestral spirits are more concerned in the living’s interaction with the spirits rather than the living’s interactions with each other.White, Claire - The dead may kill you: Do ancestor spirit beliefs promote cooperation in tra..., 1 - 1 Variables
Using 57 cultures from the Human Relations Area Files database, this paper examines the function and effectiveness of the belief of punitive ancestors in small-scale societies. The authors found that belief in dangerous ancestral entities is widespread and common and that harm is preventable through ritualized mortuary practices. The authors concluded that the fear of ancestral spirits did not promote social cooperation or inhibit self-interest behavior, contrary to the supernatural punishment hypothesis.
Related Hypotheses Cite More By Author - Evolution of belief in an afterlife will be positively associated with evolution of ancestor worship (273).Peoples, Hervey C. - Hunter-gatherers and the origins of religion, 2016 - 2 Variables
What is the evolutionary sequence of beliefs in hunter-gatherers? The authors attempt to answer this question by reconstructing the development of various traits in traditional societies using phylogenetic and linguistic source trees. Testing for correlated evolution between this reconstruction and population history as proxied by linguistic classification suggests the presence of animism at profound time depth, aligning with classical anthropological religious theory put forth by E.B. Tylor. Coevolutions between other religious concepts including shamanism, ancestor worship, active ancestor worship, high gods, active high gods, and belief in an afterlife are also examined.
Related Hypotheses Cite More By Author - Matrilineal societies will be more likely to believe in ancestral spirits (156).Somersan, Semra - Death symbolism in matrilineal societies, 1984 - 2 Variables
This study focuses on death symbolism in relation to matrilineal descent. Findings suggest that matrilineal societies are more likely than patrilineal or bilateral societies to believe in ancestral spirits, reincarnation, and a quality of afterlife unconditioned on individual’s behavior.
Related Hypotheses Cite More By Author - The presence of sovereign kinship organization will be associated with a belief in active ancestral spirits (94).Peregrine, Peter N. - The birth of the gods revisited: a partial replication of guy swanson's (196..., 1996 - 2 Variables
This article retests several hypotheses from Swanson’s (1960) study on the origins of religious belief. The author finds support for an association between high gods and large communities, multiple levels of political hierarchy, and social differentiation. No support is found for Swanson’s other hypotheses concerning polytheism, ancestral spirits, reincarnation, the soul, witchcraft, and morality and their relations to social, political, and economic variables.
Related Hypotheses Cite More By Author - Historical pathogen prevalence will be negatively associated with prevalence of physical contact during mortuary rituals (5).Murray, Damian R. - The kiss of death: three tests of the relationship between disease threat an..., 2016 - 2 Variables
In order to evaluate an adaptive justification for restriction of ritualized physical contact, the authors test association between three manifestations of physical interaction and prevalence of pathogens cross-culturally. Their expectation, supported by two of the three tested hypotheses, is that higher pathogen prevalence will lead to customs of restricted physical contact. Both cultural and biological evolution are suggested to be influential in selecting for physically intimate behaviors.
Related Hypotheses Cite More By Author - Influence of deceased kin on living descendants will be positively associated with Population Growth Rate (PGR) (70).Sipes, Richard G. - Population growth, society, and culture: an inventory of cross-culturally te..., 1980 - 2 Variables
This book examines population growth rate and its correlates by testing 274 hypotheses (derived from multiple theories) with an 18-society sample. Forty-one of these hypotheses were significant at the .05 level, leading the author to accept these relationships as reflective of the real world. The 274 hypotheses are grouped into 51 broader hypotheses, and marked by (*) where relationships are significant as designated by the author or by significance p < 0.05.
Related Hypotheses Cite More By Author - Influence of living kin on deceased ancestors will be positively associated with Population Growth Rate (PGR) (70).Sipes, Richard G. - Population growth, society, and culture: an inventory of cross-culturally te..., 1980 - 2 Variables
This book examines population growth rate and its correlates by testing 274 hypotheses (derived from multiple theories) with an 18-society sample. Forty-one of these hypotheses were significant at the .05 level, leading the author to accept these relationships as reflective of the real world. The 274 hypotheses are grouped into 51 broader hypotheses, and marked by (*) where relationships are significant as designated by the author or by significance p < 0.05.
Related Hypotheses Cite More By Author - 23) Reincarnation beliefs are positively associated with flexed burial posture.Matlock, James Graham - A cross-cultural study of reincarnation ideologies and their social correlates, 1993 - 2 Variables
This dissertation discusses the divided theoretical approach to how reincarnation, animism, spirits, and general religious beliefs occur within societies cross-culturally. Matlock offers evidence to support Tyler, contradicting the generally accepted Durkheimian approach, arguing that the belief about souls and spirits may originate in dreams and other empirical experiences, in turn informing and shaping social organization. Durkheim argued the opposite, claiming that religious beliefs reflect social organization such as the clan and kinship. The author states 33 quantitative hypotheses to be tested using 30 of the first 60 sample societies available in the HRAF Probability Sample.
Related Hypotheses Cite More By Author - The "moralizing high gods" variable underestimates the prevalence of moralizing gods in ethnographic societies.Lightner, Aaron D. - Moralistic supernatural punishment is probably not associated with social co..., 2022 - 2 Variables
This paper examines the relationship between moralizing gods (gods that impose moral rules or punish those who break them) and social complexity. The authors argue that previous research, which relied on the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample's "moralizing high gods" variable as a proxy measure for the presence of moralizing gods, may have underestimated the presence of moralizing gods in societies. This is because the criteria used to define "moralizing high gods" are not relevant to whether a god is moralistic or punitive. The authors argue that this leads to a false positive association between moralizing gods and social complexity, and that ethnographic evidence suggests that moralizing gods are actually more prevalent in small-scale societies than had previously been thought. Future researchers, therefore, need to be careful about making assumptions about the moralizing gods of small scale societies based on "moralizing high gods", and find other ways to identify whether moralizing gods are present.
Related Hypotheses Cite More By Author