Brill has published a new edited volume Evolution, Cognition, and the History of Religion: A New Synthesis.
Intended as a Festschrift for Armin W. Geertz, this joint project provides a new synthesis of the study of religion, advocating the need to integrate three approaches, namely the evolutionary, the cognitive and the historical, into a single stream. Among the 41 chapters coming from the world's leading experts on these approaches, you will also find chapters by Radek Kundt (Making Evolutionary Science of Religion and Integral Part of Cognitive Science of Religion) and Eva Kundtová Klocová (Experimenting with Cognitive Historiography). Many thanks to all editors for their relentless efforts!
In a new study published in Human Nature, LEVYNA was part of a team lead by A.K. Willard, studying how witchcraft beliefs affect social norms and behaviors. Specifically, researchers investigated whether witchcraft is regarded to be motivated by envy and how this notion influences community interactions. The findings show that, while witchcraft accusations were common, they were mostly directed at persons suspected of acting out of envy.
In an ethnographic survey-based study published in the journal Religions, D. Xygalatas and P. Maňo looked at variation in motivations for ritual practice and how it relates to the socioeconomic status of respondents. The findings indicate that whereas people of lower socioeconomic standing address more immediate concerns related to material security and safety in their ritual practices, people at the other end of the socioeconomic spectrum tend to focus on the fulfillment of spiritual, social, or cultural needs.
