For most of human existence, people lived in relatively small groups which were based on a food foraging (i.e. hunting, gathering, fishing) economy. Within such groups, cooperation among group members was vital to their survival and social harmony was maintained by informal notions of etiquette. Behavior in these small groups was regulated by a general standard of how people should behave. These norms of behavior were not formally decreed. The notion of morality in the small hunting and gathering groups can be seen as an expression of concern for other people, for without these other people, survival was not possible.
Morality may have initially evolved as a genetic predisposition for behavior based on empathy and reciprocity which enabled group survival. In his book The Faith Instinct: How Religion Evolved and Why It Endures, Nicholas Wade writes:
“The genetic component of the process probably shapes specialized neural circuits or modules in the brain. Some of these may prompt universal moral behaviors such as empathy and reciprocity. Others probably predispose people to learn the particular moral values of their society at an appropriate age.”
Nicholas Wade also writes:
“The existence of special neural circuitry in the brain dedicated to moral decisions is further evidence that morality is an evolved faculty with a genetic basis.”
As agriculture began to replace the foraging economy and as towns and cities began to replace the hunting and gathering camps and fishing villages, the need for social control also changed. Gradually, the informal and flexible ideas of etiquette evolved into more formal and somewhat rigid laws.
Small food-foraging societies tended to be egalitarian; that is, all people were considered social equals. While there were recognized differences in skill levels and aptitudes, the idea of a class of people who were social inferiors did not exist. With the larger populations made possible by agriculture, societies became organized on the basis of hierarchy; social inequality. In his book Understanding Early Civilizations: A Comparative Study, Bruce Trigger writes:
“In early civilizations and other complex preindustrial societies, inequality was regarded as a normal condition and injustice as a personal misfortune or even an individual’s just deserts rather than as a social evil.”
While hierarchy seems natural, the “rules” of hierarchy are learned at an early age. Bruce Trigger writes:
“Every child was born into and socialized by a family that was internally hierarchized by the image of the state. The subordination of children to their parents and, to varying degrees, of wives to their husbands went unquestioned, as did corporal punishment as a means of enforcing obedience and discipline.”
Leadership among food foraging people was skill-based, usually associated with a person’s ability to persuade others. Leadership in the agricultural societies became formal and the idea that kingship had been given to humans by the gods was often cited in justifying this form of leadership.
Religion in food foraging societies generally focused on rituals relating to food resources (hunting, gathering, fishing) and healing. With agriculture and the development of social hierarchies, the focus of religion changed to reinforcing and explaining social inequality. In an article in Free Inquiry, Armin Geetz describes it this way:
“With the invention of agriculture and the rise of city-states, religions arose to deal with the selective pressures caused by larger populations within confined areas with restricted resources. Here we find the first hierarchical social and political systems, which clearly favor the elite and powerful and shamelessly abuse lesser groups. Religion is right along in there, maintaining the status quo through dramatic ritual sacrifices, pompous ceremonies, and processions and monopolizing scriptural traditions and education. They legitimize polities and the conquest and control of conquered populations in larger societies.”
The animistic theology of hunting and gathering people reflected the egalitarian nature of these societies. Animistic spirits were not higher powers or gods: they were entities which had different abilities. In agricultural based societies in which hierarchy was a basic feature of social organization, religious theology focused on the idea of gods, higher powers. In the egalitarian food foraging societies, survival of the group depended on cooperation; in the hierarchical agricultural societies, particularly city-states, survival of the society depended on not offending the gods.
Morality, the idea of living according to rules decreed by the gods so that the gods would not destroy the world, is a religious idea that evolved with agriculture, social hierarchy, kingdoms, and early empires. With the invention of writing, moral codes were written down, become dogmatic and inflexible. When moral codes have been decreed by the gods and written down, any debate about whether or not a particular rule is a good idea or not can be easily suppressed.
With the evolution of monotheism, particularly the monotheism of the Abrahamic religions, many of the decreed morals involved behavior regarding a narcissistic god who required regular praise and sacrifice. Writing about Christianity in Scandinavia in a chapter in The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings, Preben Sørensen writes:
“Most church law was not based on human relationships, but on man’s relationship with the invisible God.”
Looking at ethnographic data from around the world, Benjamin Purzycki of the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology and Joseph Watts of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, in their report in Free Inquiry, write:
“…belief in moralizing high gods was scarce before the spread of Christianity and Islam…”
While morals began as the informal norms in small groups which ensured the survival of the group itself, as religion became more formalized and literate, morals became a rigid behavioral code supposedly given to the people by the gods. These formal, written, rigid moral codes then often became the structure for laws and government in complex civilizations. In his book Religion Explained: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought, Pascal Boyer writes:
“The connection between religious concepts and political systems is likewise impossible to ignore because it is loudly proclaimed by many religious believers and religious doctrines.”
Even in modern secular democracies, such as the United States, religious morals are often deeply embedded in political thought and government action.
Monotheistic morality requires the worship of the “right” god, and adherence to the rules of the “right” religion. Pascal Boyer asks:
“Why is it that some people find it perfectly all right—indeed, morally compelling—to exclude or kill other people because they are not members of the ‘true’ religion, or do not follow it in the ‘right’ way?”
This religious concept of the “right” of worship is also seen in the theocratic tendency to require proper attitudes and behaviors regarding patriotism, such as standing when the national anthem is being played and placing the hand over the heart when pledging allegiance.
Religion 101
Religion 101 is a series exploring various topics relating to religion in which religion is not restricted the Abrahamic religions. More from this series:
Religion 101: Divination in Ancient Civilizations
Religion 101: Demons
Religion 101: Rites of Passage
Religion 101: Shamanistic Ceremonies
Religion 101: Atheism
Religion 101: Zoroaster's Vision