Religious rituals explained by how we memorise?

Last updated on: November 13, 2014 at 5:52 pm by Epiphenom

Religious rituals explained by how we memorise? 2014-11-13T17:52:43+01:00 Epiphenom

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

There’s a nice article over at New Scientist on the theories of Harvey Whitehouse, an anthropologist at the University of Oxford. He’s been looking at religious rituals, and thinks he can explain why dramatic rituals tend to occur only in small, fringe religions – and why religious rituals are so undramatic in the complex, hierarchical religions that dominate most of the world (Christianity, Islam, etc).

His idea is that the different types of rituals appeal to different fundamental aspects of memory:

“The reason why there are only two types of religion is that there are only two basic systems of memory that matter,” he argues. The first is semantic memory, which deals with things we are conscious of remembering and stores what we have learned about the world. Then there is episodic memory, which hangs onto memorable events from our own lives. Whitehouse argues that to persist and spread, a religion must elicit the help of rituals that reinforce memories in both these systems.

So, religions that have little in the way of systematic theology, and instead depend on intense personal experiences, often also feature intense rituals that are stored in episodic memory.

Complex religions that require adherents to memorize shared stories (often counter-intuitive ones) instead feature frequent, low-intensity rituals designed to trigger semantic memories.

It’s a nice idea. It’s also one that provides an alternative to the more common idea that rituals are ‘costly signals’ – i.e. by participating, you show that you are sufficiently committed to the group to spend time doing apparently pointless tasks.

But is it true? A good theory makes predictions that you wouldn’t otherwise expect. Unfortunately, I don’t think the predictions made by Whitehouse’s theory fit the bill:

One advantage is that it makes testable predictions. For example, religious rituals are unlikely to be both low frequency and low arousal – because such rituals would not be easily remembered – or high frequency, high arousal – because most people will not willingly undergo too much torment even in the name of religion. It also predicts that doctrinal religions will tend not to have low-frequency, high-arousal rituals because they undermine orthodoxy, and imagistic religions will tend not to have high-frequency, low-arousal rituals because these undermine exclusivity.

To me, it is not surprising that high-arousal rituals are also low-frequency. You could not do penis-cutting every day.

It seems to me that the intensity of frequency of religious rituals are more likely driven by the nature of the society, rather than the type of religion. These imagistic religions occur in small-scale, tribal societies.

What’s more, there are plenty of examples of low-frequency, intense rituals within doctrinal religions. Pilgrimages, for example. Not to mention things like Shia self-flagellation and Christian sacramental penance. Of course, Whitehouse is an expert anthropologist so no doubt is aware of these. His argument is that the bulk of religions fit these ‘ideals’.

But one interesting deviation is modern Christianity. In the UK at least, many Christians go to church once a year at Christmas time – the very model of a ‘low frequency, low arousal’ ritual!

__________________________________________________________________________
This article by Tom Rees was first published on Epiphenom. It is licensed under Creative Commons.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

December 21, 2009

Christian cancellation of the secular truce

Next Post

January 1, 2010 A brief history of 2009

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Causes of religion - evolution Causes of religion - psychological Causes of religion - social Demographics Digest Effects of religion - health Effects of religion - psychological Effects of religion - social Notifications Politics Uncategorized

Select a Month March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Where did David hide from Saul for many years?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Jerusalem Philistine camp The wilderness Jericho