Religion Evolving - Cultural, Cognitive, and Ecological Dynamics - Benjamin Grant Purzycki
Approaching Religion as a Complex Adaptive System
Religion Evolving - Cultural, Cognitive, and Ecological Dynamics - Benjamin Grant Purzycki
Benjamin Grant Purzycki [+]
Aarhus University
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Benjamin Grant Purzycki is Associate Professor in the Department of the Study of Religion at Aarhus University.
Richard Sosis [+]
University of Connecticut
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Richard Sosis is the James Barnett Professor of Humanistic Anthropology at the University of Connecticut.
Description
By drawing more directly from the complex adaptive systems literature, Chapter 9 offers a general schematic model of religion and focuses on religion’s reach beyond beliefs and practices. It also emphasizes the energetic feedback that contributes to the evolution of religious traditions. This chapter shows how religious systems internally function, with ritual at its core, as well as how religious systems change over time, typically through a pattern of growth, decline, and revitalization.