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Der evolutionäre Ursprung von Ritualen
Eine disziplinübergreifende Synthese des aktuellen Forschungsstandes aus archäologischer Perspektive
What are rituals, how do they work, when and why did they emerge in the course of human evolution? These questions are addressed in the present work through an extensive, interdisciplinary synthesis. Approaches from evolutionary biology, cognitive science and cultural anthropology are combined and related to the archaeological record of the Paleolithic period. Communal ritual is explicated as a powerful psychosocial technique for social cohesion with a complex evolutionary history. The work demonstrates that ritual is among the central biocultural adaptations of an ultrasocial species, which, as the only hominin species, managed to spread across the entire planet.
