That's not really the message to take from this, but it's certainly a valid "shorter" version of it.
It's a lecture by a Stanford Anthropologist, and it's the most interesting scientific lecture I've heard in recent memory. And
I watch/
listen to a lot of scientific lectures. Quite often on this very subject. I'm not going to try to summarize the whole thing, since it's impossibly fast moving and informative. Instead I'll comment on a few elements I found most interesting.
The prof's main purpose is to explain the continuation of various reproductively maladaptive traits in human beings, and how those traits have influenced human culture. Chiefly in the creation and maintenance of religions and religious rituals. A variety of mental conditions that are very bad for humans are actually pretty good, if you have them in a limited dose. Sort of half of the condition. The analogy is to various medical conditions; full on sickle cell anemia is deadly, but it also protects against malaria, and it's possible to have partial sickle cell and be improved by it, in certain malaria-rich environments. Tay-Sach's is a fatal genetic disorder, but a related condition seems to provide immunity to tuberculosis. And others.
So can that work with genetically-transmitted mental disorders? Yes. Schizophrenia is a terrible disorder, and it was much more detrimental to leading a healthy life 1000 or 2000 or 5000 years ago than it is today. But people who have a mild type of schizophrenia called schizo-typal disorder tend to have some level of magical thinking, are obsessed with ritual, seem to be in touch with the gods, invent new religious practices, etc. They're ideal medicine men/shamans, since they can be schizophrenic more or less on command, when it's appropriate. Not during the hunt when the mammoth would be scared away, but definitely during a ceremony when the tribe needs a curse lifted or the rain gods called.
OCD, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is another one. People with it full bore are non-functional; washing their hands for 6 hours a day, tapping a certain number of times before they can enter or leave a room, unable to walk on a sidewalk since there are cracks they might step on, etc. Almost everyone with OCD has a few predictable issues. Personal cleanliness is a big one, as are rituals for entering and leaving sacred places, and numbers/counting. Most of us have some lower level of OCD, as demonstrated by the usual human need to sort papers, or stack things neatly on a desk, or use our lucky pen to write an important paper, etc.
So? As the lecturer relates, religions are simply chock full of OCD-like rituals. All of the Kosher food preparation rituals in Judaism. Hindu Brahmins must sleep in proper positions, chant holy phrases a precise number of times, breath a set number of times from each nostril in turn, etc. Catholics have prayer beads which must be a proper number, counted X number of times in the proper sequence, certain prayers must be said X number of times, etc. There's a ton of OCD type stuff in Islam as well, and many rigorous requirements and rituals about how to clean yourself. The prof gives many more examples with thorough documentation, so listen to it yourself.
There's a lot more, but I thought the overall presentation did a fantastic job of discussing common maladies, showing that they have a genetic heritability, and describing how versions of them are just tailor-made to create religions, or religious rituals. And how religious rituals are both created by these sorts of compulsions, and satisfying to humans because we have these compulsions in us, to varying degrees.
Labels: psychology, religion
