Supernatural Power and Cultural Evolution

Anthony Layng

An evolutionary perspective that emphasizes the observable consequences of religious faith, and recognizes how beliefs can give rise to behavior that regulates access to essential material resources, may be productive in explaining the early origins and universality of belief in supernatural power.

All human cultures appear to include faith in supernatural power, and it seems that this tradition has played an active and essential role in influencing how our ancestors perceived and adapted to their environment. This relationship between human belief and adaptive behavior may have played a critical role in shaping cultural evolution.

The history of any society can demonstrate how sacred beliefs change over time, how they are created or borrowed, consciously or unconsciously, and how they may be subsequently abandoned. Beliefs about the natural environment and the supernatural environment are part of a larger system of learned ideas and customs that comprise a culture. And entire cultures change over time in the same way beliefs do. Human populations no longer adapt to environmental change by evolving generically. We now adapt to change by altering our beliefs and behavior. Human evolution from Australopithecines to Cro-Magnon, the first of our ancestors to have the physical features that characterize all human populations today, depended largely on slowly changing gene frequencies. For at least the past 60,000 years, human biological evolution has been relatively inactive. During this time, the evolution of beliefs has come to determine which populations had the greatest capacity to survive.

Cultural and Group Beliefs

At an early stage in cultural evolution, all societies began to believe in supernatural power, the common denominator of all religious beliefs. Tribal societies studied by anthropologists have provided numerous examples of belief systems that may be similar to those of our ancient ancestors. Modern American proclivities to endorse many forms of supernatural power may make us more intellectually similar to tribal societies than to other industrialized ones, but all human cultures today include faith in some spiritual beings and forces. From an evolutionary perspective, this universality suggests that such beliefs must have played some essential role in ensuring the wellbeing of human populations. And here the reference is not to miracles, magical cures, and spiritual intervention. It is the belief in such things that is likely to be instrumental in this regard, nor the things believed in.

Individuals and small groups are capable of cherishing beliefs that are detrimental to their physical welfare, as exemplified by the followers of Heaven's Gate in California or Jim Jones in Guyana. Cults often begin by promoting behavior that is antithetical to the physical wellbeing of members, but those that evolve into established denominations do so by becoming less exclusive and more reflective of the surrounding culture. Consequently, they abandon their self-destructive behavior. Individuals and fringe groups may hold religious beliefs that compromise their survival, but beliefs that are traditional and generalized throughout a society are likely to enhance the survival of that society. It is as if individuals can afford to be really stupid, but the collective wisdom of a society must be far more practical in its consequence.

Some populations maintain customs that threaten the survival of certain individuals and, at the same time, help to ensure the survival of the society. For example, the belief that first-born females are cursed and the practice of female infanticide in a tribal society can effectively check population expansion in an environment where unlimited growth would likely lead to mass starvation. Similarly, the traditional prohibition against slaughtering cows in India, where famine was not unusual, meant that many poor people would starve rather than eat beef. But the belief that cows were sacred enabled them and the oxen they produced to survive, thus ensuring that beasts of burden would be available for their essential role in this agrarian society. Had the consumption of beef not been taboo in this largely impoverished and rapidly expanding population, cows would be consumed faster than they could reproduce, oxen would no longer be available for plowing, agricultural output would steadily decline, and the entire society would be hard-pressed to survive.

Proposing that traditional faith in supernatural power has utility for the believers is not at all new. Sigmund Freud, who did nor much care for religion, nevertheless gave it credit for its emotional functions such as reducing anxieties. And Emile Durkheim, regarded as the first sociologist, proposed that belief in magic and spiritual beings was highly beneficial for the maintenance of society. But anthropologists now are suggesting that belief in supernatural power is more practical than meeting mere emotional and social needs; it may have played an essential role in ensuring that our ancestors' material needs were met.

Native American Beliefs

To illustrate how belief in supernatural power is capable of providing a reliable supply of scarce goods and resources that sustain a population, I offer the following account of Native American religious beliefs, beginning with the nineteenth century Plains Indians. According to their tradition, success in hunting, warfare, and other important activities was dependent upon the availability of cosmic supernatural power, energy that was inclined to exhaustion over the course of a year or so. Regenerating this finite power required that the entire tribe assemble and perform an elaborate renewal ritual that took several days.

During most of the year, these hunter and gatherer tribes adapted to their environment by dispersing in numerous bands over a large area. Since the bison herds were similarly distributed, as were other food animals and plants, permanently living as a congregated tribe would cause inevitable starvation. However, the bison gathered annually for a mass migration, and at this time a large coordinated hunt by all the warriors of the tribe could usually furnish enough meat to sustain them through the winter when other food was very difficult to acquire.

The renewal rituals, the most famous of which is the Sundance, occurred at the same time that the bison were assembling, ideal timing for the annual hunt. In addition, this seasonal ritual maintained a sense of tribal identity and loyalty, emotionally tying the various bands together, giving them a collective sense of interdependency and common fate, since the absence of even one band meant that the ritual would not be able to regenerate sufficient power. Since these egalitarian societies were in competition for the limited food supply, and only those that were capable of exercising considerable military strength were in a position to be competitive, the tribes whose bands were strongly unified were the most likely to survive in this politically hostile environment.

When the various Plains Indian tribes were settled on reservations, and bison hunting and intertibal warfare ceased, the annual rituals ceased as well, along with other religious rituals such as vision quests and sweat lodge ceremonies. However, even where many converted to Christianity, a traditional belief in witchcraft survived. Now that tribes were politically dependent and their food was furnished by the government, the annual renewal ritual lost its meaning. But faith in witchcraft remained relevant, because it provided an incentive system to maximize sharing between households--strategically important in a place where food and employment were so scarce.

With a belief in evil clandestine witches (in contrast to those promoted today by feminist spirituality groups), an individual with some money or food was inclined to share it with neighbors out of fear that one of them might be a jealous witch, a man or woman who could cast a spell causing the selfish offender some grievous harm. And since witches were believed to be greedy, as well as jealous, households with surplus goods engaged in overt sharing in order to avoid accusations of witchcraft. Rumors about an individual's alleged sorcery could make that person a social pariah. Many were inclined to share because doing so was in conformance with a strong sharing ethic, but for those who needed additional prodding, the fear of witchcraft and not wanting neighbors to suspect you of witchcraft was likely to ensure that most would share.

Eventually, where poverty was much reduced by economic development, belief in witches declined also. Where education and employment have become viable alternatives to poverty, the witchcraft incentive system that maintains generalized sharing is no longer adaptive. When all are poor, sharing makes possible some minimal security, but a regular income devoted to one's own household can provide even greater security. Individuals might still be accused of being witches, but such accusations in an economically improved environment are likely to be dismissed by residents who are doing relatively well as mere jealousy.

Now that there are tribal colleges and increasing employment opportunities on many reservations, a renewed interest in traditional rituals has emerged. Belief in witches is fading, but Sundances, vision quests, and sweat lodge ceremonies are making a comeback, along with the belief that these rituals can affect supernatural beings and forces. How might this be adaptive among people who are educated?

This interest in traditional religion comes at a time when preserving the tribal language and the old customs is difficult and no longer assured, but one can retain an Indian identity by participating in the ancient rituals. Overt expressions of ethnic identity counterbalance the view that Indians have acculturated to the point where reservations and numerous programs with benefits and payrolls for Indians are no longer warranted. Many in the government favor cutting the federal budget that supports the Bureau of Indian Affairs, special scholarships, subsidized housing, comprehensive health care, and so forth that Native Americans very much rely on. If Indians are no different from other Americans, why maintain this special relationship with the federal government? Rituals like pow-wows and Sundances provide overt evidence that Indians are still Indians, in spite of their casinos and mainstream lifestyle, helping to justify their special political status and the material security that this status provides.

Another traditional religious concept has gained urgency in recent decades, the claim that certain places and properties are sacred. Since most Indians are Christians and have formal education, why all this concerted interest in sacred lands? How might this be adaptive? Consider the fact that the American public has developed considerable sympathy for Indian ideas about land, and that many successful legal land claim cases have proven to be highly lucrative; some tribes have been granted large tracts of valuable real estate, and others have been compensated with millions of dollars by the courts. Tribal lawyers have given ancient ideas about land a contemporary meaning. It seems quite likely that judges in these cases are more inclined to be generous when the "lost" lands in question are "sacred." Here again, it may be the economic advantages that are at the heart of the matter.

When most Native Americans stopped practicing tribal rituals, scholars came to view this as a "loss" of Indian culture; more recently, when they reestablished many of their traditional ceremonies, it was described usually as cultural "revival." Such terms as "loss" and "revival" of culture are descriptive but lack explanatory capacity. To account for the dynamic nature of religious beliefs and practices, we should view them from an evolutionary perspective, recognizing how beliefs that are adaptive tend to be preserved, and how ideas that lose their utility tend to moderate, be reinterpreted, or even disappear.

Modern Versus Primitive Societies

Primitive societies with stable social environments are, understandably, resistant to cultural change. Since their beliefs and traditions have adapted to an environment that is relatively constant, their religion will reflect cultural conservatism, suitable for preserving the status quo. For example, they may stress adherence to tradition by being convinced that deified ancestors insist on the old ways. Similarly, their mythology, taken as literal truth, encourages the same conservatism by illustrating how terrible things can happen when the gods are displeased by individuals who break the mores. Belief in witchcraft, as illustrated above, also discourages deviance from traditional norms.

Isolated primitive societies need unchallenged faith in supernatural power. Unfettered rational thinking, objectivity, and skepticism cannot be tolerated, since such challenges to tradition are likely to lead to social change, a very risky development under such circumstances. If they subjected religious belief to scientific verification, if they accepted only what could be observed and experienced, their faith would be so undermined as to be ineffectual in maximizing the availability of essential material resources. Contemporary Americans, on the other hand, can retain or challenge belief in supernatural power without threatening the longevity of their society. The natural resources they depend on are controlled by bureaucratic government, industrial corporations, complex technology, and other secular means.

Industrial countries, in contrast to tradition-oriented societies, rely on flexible forms of social control, such as public opinion and a jury system. This is suitable (adaptive) because the social environment is constantly changing, thus requiring functional equivalents to belief in supernatural power. For example, once it became common practice for conjugal couples to delay or forgo marriage, we changed laws that discriminated against individuals for "living in sin." Similarly, rather than depending exclusively on faith healing and magical cures, most of us now rely on physicians. We have not abandoned religious methods to encourage conformity, and many Americans with severe health problems continue to rely both on traditional prayer and modern surgery. But the survival of our society no longer requires consensus on the idea that supernatural beings and forces sustain us. We, unlike isolated tribal societies, can afford to be skeptical and to encourage rational thinking.

So what might we conclude about belief in supernatural power? What is the most likely explanation for why our early ancestors came to believe in supernatural power? Since this idea turned out to be so valuable for primitive societies, is it reasonable to assume that the belief came from revelation, from the supernatural world? Most people would answer yes because, if true, it seems to confirm that supernatural beings actually exist, and that is what a majority of people believe. But, of course, an explanatory theory cannot be validated by a show of hands.

It is more scientific to consider the possibility that, as the human brain evolved, there was selection for those who were inclined to believe in supernatural power, resulting in a genetic propensity to so believe. Some scholars, inspired by evolutionary psychology, are promoting this theory, but it seems to imply that today's atheists have brains too regressive to recognize what for "normal" people is obvious, that believing in God is just natural. This inborn belief theory has some intellectual appeal, but it lacks hard evidence, as do theological explanations for belief in supernatural power.

Admittedly, at one point in our evolution, human brains became capable of conceptualizing supernatural power, an ability that requires considerable capacity for abstract thought. And, again, given the important adaptive potential of belief in supernatural power, its capacity for aiding the physical survival of a population, early human societies armed with this idea would have been the most likely to last. Over time, with only a Stone Age technology, all surviving societies would exemplify this belief.

This analysis is neither politically correct nor likely to be intellectually palatable to most Americans, for it renders irrelevant the existence of supernatural power and the spiritual beings (God, angels, saints, Satan, etc.) who personify such power. For those, however, who are willing to subject religious convictions to scientific investigation, viewing such concepts from an evolutionary perspective may be highly instructive in suggesting how and why belief in supernatural power emerged and helped to determine the course of cultural evolution.

Anthony Layng is an emeritus professor of anthropology (Elmira College). He now lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. E-mail: tdlayng@cs.com He has written numerous articles for USA Today: The Magazine of the American Scene, many of which have appeared in anthologies.

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