Pascal Boyer is a Henry Luce Professor of Individual and Collective Memory at Washington University in St. Louis.

 

 

Religious representations are widespread in human societies. A tempting explanation is that religions somehow constitute some form of evolutionary adaptation for human minds, perhaps fostering cooperation and prosocial behavior. But the historical and anthropological record contradicts that interpretation. A better explanation for religious representations should [a] start from the observation that the term `religion` misleadingly lumps together three very different kinds of social-cultural processes; [b] model the diffusion of religious concepts in terms of cultural epidemics based on universal cognitive dispositions; and [c] explain why some (not all) religious concepts can serve as recruitment devices in building coalitions.