HSH-online: Lecture of Ken Baskin “Religion” as an Engine for Cultural Evolution"
On the 22nd of March (Friday) at 6.30 p.m. (Moscow time) there would be the new session of scientific seminar of International Centre of Anthropology named "Homo sapiens historicus". Our lecturer would be Ken Baskin, Independent Researcher, with the report “Religion” as an Engine for Cultural Evolution".
Abstract:
Religion has been a problematic phenomenon for more than a half century, with first-class scholars questioning whether it even provided a useful category for study. Yet, its combination of myth and ritual seems close to universal. This presentation examines the phenomena we think of as “religion” through applying findings in complexity science and neurobiology. The result is a radical re-interpretation that suggests the function of religion is far more essential than what the mainstream model indicates. Rather than merely providing a path to worship and spiritual development, the behaviors we think of as religion provide a key human survival strategy, especially in times, like our own, when societies face existential challenges. The presenter will begin by explaining how, as David Sloan Wilson notes in Darwin’s Cathedral, the model of religion in Modernity is so different from pre-modern religions that it has made it almost impossible for scholars to see it clearly. He will then explore the history of religion through an application of evolution as viewed in complexity science. Finally, he will explain how an understanding of the neurobiology of perception suggests that religion is, in fact, a neurobiological imperative that has allowed societies to reinvent their worldviews when their old ones became an obstacle to social survival, focusing on examples from the Axial Age and Modernity. It is, in short, a key engine of cultural evolution.
Report will be presented in English language.
Our session would be broadcasted with the help of Zoom и YouTube. For receiveng the link of YouTube broadcast please contact the manager of the International Centre of Anthropology M. Aksenova via e-mail maksenova@hse.ru. You will receive the link before the start of the session.
You would see the broadcast if you visit our YouTube channel at appointed time:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCswmh4OELDBt9q3eavsEAug .jpg)
Cover of the book "The Axial Ages of World History: Lessons for the 21st Century", by Ken Baskin and Dmitri M. Bondarenko (published by Isce Pub in 2014)