Journal
PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Volume 375, Issue 1805, Pages -Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2019.0429
Keywords
commitment; future uncertainty; goodwill; ritual; resources; social capital
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This paper argues that rituals are mechanisms of resource management. The argument is based on four observations: (i) over the course of hominin evolution, fitness became contingent on psychological states; (ii) these psychological states can be understood as 'resources', not unlike material resources such as energy, food or fuel; (iii) ritual 'manages' these psychological resources-meaning that it cultivates, builds and directs them; and (iv) ritual management can be analytically decomposed, providing a new descriptive tool for understanding rituals and predictions about ritual survival. This article is part of the theme issue 'Ritual renaissance: new insights into the most human of behaviours'.
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