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Cited by 509Evolutionary Game Theory and CooperationEvolutionary Psychology and Human BehaviorSocial and Intergroup Psychology

The Ties That Bind Us: Ritual, Fusion, and Identification

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Whitehouse, Harvey, Lanman, Jonathan A.·2014·Current Anthropology
DOI 10.1086/678698
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Abstract

Most social scientists endorse some version of the claim that participating in collective rituals promotes social cohesion. The systematic testing and evaluation of this claim, however, has been prevented by a lack of precision regarding the nature of both “ritual” and “social cohesion” as well as a lack of integration between the theories and findings of the social and evolutionary sciences. By directly addressing these challenges, we argue that a systematic investigation and evaluation of the claim that ritual promotes social cohesion is achievable. We present a general and testable theory of the relationship between ritual, cohesion, and cooperation that more precisely connects particular elements of “ritual,” such as causal opacity and emotional arousal, to two particular forms of “social cohesion”: group identification and identity fusion. Further, we ground this theory in an evolutionary account of why particular modes of ritual practice would be adaptive for societies with particular resource-acquisition strategies. In setting out our conceptual framework, we report numerous ongoing investigations that test our hypotheses against data from controlled psychological experiments as well as from the ethnographic, archaeological, and historical records.

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Authors
Whitehouse, H., & Lanman, J. A.
Affiliations
University of Oxford (GB)
ORCID
Venue
Current Anthropology
Publisher
University of Chicago Press
Published
2014-12
Volume
55
Issue
6
Pages
674-695
ISSN
  • 0011-3204 (ISSN-L)
  • 1537-5382
DOI
10.1086/678698
OpenAlex
W847076072
Cited by
509
References
181
Citations by year
2026: 29 · 2025: 45 · 2024: 45 · 2023: 37 · 2022: 34 · 2021: 46 · 2020: 89 · 2019: 59 · 2018: 57 · 2017: 23 · 2016: 24 · 2015: 17 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 1
FWCI
72.78
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Current Anthropology (publishedVersion)
  • Research Portal (Queen's University Belfast) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
Funders
  • John Templeton Foundation
  • Economic and Social Research Council (RES‐060‐25‐0085, REFRES-060-25-0085, ES/I005455/1)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
Keywords
ritual, social cohesion, cooperation, group identification, identity fusion, emotional arousal, resource acquisition strategies, collective ritual

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