Estimated Costs and Benefits of Extreme Rituals in Mauritius
Why do people willingly engage in painful or exhausting rituals with no obvious material reward?
Ritualization reduces anxiety
In their chapter, Martin Lang and Radim Chvaja examine the evolutionary relationship between anxiety and rituals and ask whether the ritual reduction of anxiety might be adaptive?
They argue that in pro-longed uncontrollable circumstances, long-lasting anxiety could be unnecessarily harmful. Ritual anxiety reduction could thus be beneficial in safe environments, even if not mitigating the threat itself.
You can find the chapter here:
