Evolution of Global Religious Diversity

What are the patterns and macro-evolutionary processes in the history of religious systems? Are cultural evolutionary processes of speciation patterned in the same way as observed in biological evolution? What are the determinants of speciation in religions? Contrary to the common notion, religions are not unchanging homogenous traditions, they are rather flexibly adapting and diverging systems of beliefs and practices. Using computational phylogenetic methods and emphasizing resource competition between religious social groups, we utilize a purpose-built dataset on formation and extinction of branches in Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and Hinduism, to test theories about birth rate shifts in their lineages.

Evolution of global religious diversity started as a three-year project (2014-2016) funded by the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, since then, it grew into a bigger multi-institutional collaboration.

The Team

Anastasia Ejova (School of Psychology, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia)
Oliver Sheehan (Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany)
Remco Bouckaert (Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany)
Simon J. Greenhill (School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand)
Jan Krátký (LEVYNA Laboratory for the Experimental Research of Religion, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic)
Silvie Kotherová (LEVYNA Laboratory for the Experimental Research of Religion, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic)
Jakub Cigán (LEVYNA Laboratory for the Experimental Research of Religion, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic)
Eva Kundtová Klocová (LEVYNA Laboratory for the Experimental Research of Religion, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic)
Radek Kundt (LEVYNA Laboratory for the Experimental Research of Religion, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic)
Joseph Watts (School of Psychology, Speech and Hearing, University of Canterbury, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand)
Joseph Bulbulia (Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany; School of Psychology, Speech and Hearing, University of Canterbury, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand; School of Psychology, Faculty of Science, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand)
Quentin D. Atkinson (School of Psychology, Faculty of Science, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand)

…and Russell D. Gray (Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany; School of Psychology, Faculty of Science, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand)

Research Outputs

In preparation / v přípravě