title: Why religion is better conceived as a complex system than a norm-enforcing institution.
abstract: Although religions, as Smaldino demonstrates, provide informative examples of culturally evolved group-level traits, they are more accurately analyzed as complex adaptive systems than as norm-enforcing institutions. An adaptive systems approach to religion not only avoids various shortcomings of institutional approaches, but also offers additional explanatory advantages regarding the cultural evolution of group-level traits that emerge from religion.
authors: Department of Anthropology,University of Connecticut,Storrs, CT 06269-1176.richard.sosis@uconn.edujordan.kiper@uconn.eduhttp://www.anth.uconn.edu/faculty/sosis/
authors: Richard
authors: R
authors: Sosis
authors: Department of Anthropology,University of Connecticut,Storrs, CT 06269-1176.richard.sosis@uconn.edujordan.kiper@uconn.eduhttp://www.anth.uconn.edu/faculty/sosis/
authors: Jordan
authors: J
authors: Kiper
mesh_terms: D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003468:Cultural Evolution; D006126:Group Processes; D006801:Humans; D012641:Selection, Genetic