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Contextual features of problem-solving and social learning give rise to spurious associations, the raw materials for the evolution of rituals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2007

Daniel M. T. Fessler
Daniel M. T. Fessler*
Affiliation:
Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture, and Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1553 http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/anthro/faculty/fessler/
*
dfessler@anthro.ucla.edu
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Abstract

If rituals persist in part because of their memory-taxing attributes, from whence do they arise? I suggest that magical practices form the core of rituals, and that many such practices derive from learned pseudo-causal associations. Spurious associations are likely to be acquired during problem-solving under conditions of ambiguity and danger, and are often a consequence of imitative social learning.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 29 , Issue 6 , December 2006 , pp. 617 - 618
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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