How ritual human sacrifice helped create unequal societies
Ritual human sacrifice played a central role in helping those at the top of the social hierarchy maintain power over those at the bottom. This is the central finding of a study published today in Nature. Researchers from the University of Auckland’s School of Psychology, the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany and Victoria University, wanted to test the link between how unequal or hierarchical a culture was – called social stratification – and human sacrifice.
Ritual human sacrifice played a central role in helping those at the top of the social hierarchy maintain power over those at the bottom. This is the central finding of a study published today in Nature. Researchers from the University of Auckland’s School of Psychology, the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany and Victoria University, wanted to test the link between how unequal or hierarchical a culture was – called social stratification – and human sacrifice.
“Religion has traditionally been seen as a key driver of morality and cooperation, but our study finds religious rituals also had a more sinister role in the evolution of modern societies,” says lead author of the study Joseph Watts from the University of Auckland.
The research team used computational methods derived from evolutionary biology to analyse historical data from 93 ‘Austronesian’ cultures. The practice of human sacrifice was widespread throughout Austronesia: 40 out of 93 cultures included in the study practised some form of ritualistic human killings. The term ‘Austronesian’ refers to a large family of languages, whose country of origin is Taiwan and whose distribution extends over much of the Indian and parts of the Pacific Ocean. Austronesian cultures form a sort of natural laboratory for intercultural studies, since they have a huge range of religions, languages, society sizes and shapes, and are located in different climatic and geographical regions.
Victims were typically of low social status
The methods of ritual killings in these cultures were diverse and sometimes extremely cruel. The reason for the killing was, for example, the burial of a leader, the inauguration of a new boat or house or the punishment for the violation of traditions or taboos. Victims were typically of low social status, such as slaves, while instigators were usually of high social status, such as priests and chiefs.
The study divided the 93 different cultures into three main groups of high, moderate or low social stratification. It found cultures with the highest level of stratification were most likely to practice human sacrifice (67%, or 18 out of 27). Of cultures with moderate stratification, 37% used human sacrifice (17 out of 46) and the most egalitarian societies were least likely to practice human sacrifice (25%, or five out of 20).
“By using human sacrifice to punish taboo violations, demoralise the underclass and instil fear of social elites, power elites were able to maintain and build social control,” Joseph Watts says.
Russell Gray, Director of the Department of Linguistic and co-author of the study, notes that “human sacrifice provided a particularly effective means of social control because it provided a supernatural justification for punishment. Rulers, such as priests and chiefs, were often believed to be descended from gods and ritual human sacrifice was the ultimate demonstration of their power.”
Ritualistic killings shored up social hierarchies
A unique feature of the research was that the use of computational evolutionary methods enabled the team to reconstruct the sequence of changes in human sacrifice and social status over the course of Pacific history. This allowed the team to test whether sacrifice preceded or followed changes in social status.
Co-author Quentin Atkinson says: “What we found was that sacrifice was the driving force, making societies more likely to adopt high social status and less likely to revert to egalitarian social structure.”
(Text & Images’ Source: article by PM/MEZ, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology)
I blog frequently and I truly thank you for your content.
This great article has really peaked my interest. I’m going
to take a note of your site and keep checking for new details about
once per week. I opted in for your Feed as well.
What’s up, yup this article is truly pleasant and I have learned lot of things from it on the topic of blogging.
thanks.
For latest news you have to pay a quick visit internet and on web I found
this site as a best site for latest updates.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts about zwaarlijvigheid. Regards
For most up-to-date information you have to go to see web and on the web I found this web site
as a best web page for hottest updates.
Thanks a bunch for sharing this with all of us you really realize what you are talking approximately!
Bookmarked. Kindly additionally talk over with my website =).
We will have a hyperlink trade contract among us.
Check out my result – best cord electric mowers AGreenHand
Great post, Instagram is such a Wonderful tool. I know
that getting followers is very hard, that’s why services like gramgenius.com really helps
you to get more followers and high engagement.
Very descriptive blog, I enjoyed that bit. Will there be a part 2?.
My creation best cord electric lawnmower AGreenHand
My brother suggested I would possibly like this web site.
He was once entirely right. This publish
truly made my day. You can not believe just how so much time I had spent for this information! Thank you!
Ꮋi there, all the time i used to check website posts here in tһe early hours in tһe
morning, for the reason that i enjoy to learn more and more.
Woh I your articles, saved to favorites!. Feel free to visit my creation best cord electric lawn mowers agreenhand
Thanks for finally talking about >The dark side
of religion – Antrocom <Liked it!
Appreciating the time and effort you put into your blog and in depth information you
offer. It’s awesome to come across a blog every once in a while
that isn’t the same old rehashed information.
Excellent read! I’ve bookmarked your site and I’m adding your RSS feeds to my Google
account.
Howɗy, i read your bⅼog occasionally and i own a sіmiⅼar one and i was just
curious if you get a lⲟt of spam remarks? If so how do
you prοtect against it,any plᥙgin oг anything you can advise?
I get so much lateⅼy it’s driving me crazy so any aѕsistance is verу much appreⅽіаteԁ.
What’s up friends, its impressive piece of writing concerning educationand completely explained, keep it up all the
time.
Excellent site you have here but I was curious
if you knew of any user discussion forums that cover the
same topics talked about here? I’d really love to be
a part of online community where I can get feedback from other knowledgeable people
that share the same interest. If you have any suggestions,
please let me know. Thanks a lot!
This is my first time pay a visit at here and i am genuinely happy to read
all at single place.