Broad supernatural punishment but not moralizing high gods precede the evolution of political complexity in Austronesia.
Supernatural belief presents an explanatory challenge to evolutionary theorists-it is both costly and prevalent. One influential functional explanation claims that the imagined threat of supernatural punishment can suppress selfishness and enhance cooperation. Specifically, morally concerned supreme deities or 'moralizing high gods' have been argued to reduce free-riding in large social groups, enabling believers to build the kind of complex societies that define modern humanity. Previous cross-cultural studies claiming to support the MHG hypothesis rely on correlational analyses only and do not correct for the statistical non-independence of sampled cultures. Here we use a Bayesian phylogenetic approach with a sample of 96 Austronesian cultures to test the MHG hypothesis as well as an alternative supernatural punishment hypothesis that allows punishment by a broad range of moralizing agents. We find evidence that broad supernatural punishment drives political complexity, whereas MHGs follow political complexity. We suggest that the concept of MHGs diffused as part of a suite of traits arising from cultural exchange between complex societies. Our results show the power of phylogenetic methods to address long-standing debates about the origins and functions of religion in human society.
School of Psychology, University of Auckland, Auckland 1142, New Zealand me@josephwatts.org.
Joseph
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7737-273X
J
Watts
School of Culture, History and Language, ANU College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.
Simon J
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7832-6156
SJ
Greenhill
School of Psychology, University of Auckland, Auckland 1142, New Zealand Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Kahlaische Strasse 10, Jena 07745, Germany.
Quentin D
QD
Atkinson
Department of Biosciences, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Cornwall TR10 9EZ, UK.
Thomas E
TE
Currie
School of Art History, Classics and Religious Studies, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington 6012, New Zealand.
Joseph
J
Bulbulia
School of Psychology, University of Auckland, Auckland 1142, New Zealand Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Kahlaische Strasse 10, Jena 07745, Germany Research School of the Social Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200, Australia Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution, Palmerston North, New Zealand.
Russell D
RD
Gray
D001210:Asia, Southeastern; D044362:Australasia; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D003468:Cultural Evolution; D006801:Humans; D009014:Morals; D010802:Phylogeny; D011678:Punishment; D012067:Religion
cultural evolution; evolution of religion; phylogenetics; political complexity; social complexity; supernatural punishment