Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity

This book argues that religion can and must be reconciled with science. Combining adaptive and cognitive approaches, it is a comprehensive analysis of religion’s evolutionary significance, and its inextricable interdependence with language. It is also a detailed study of religion’s main component, ritual, which constructs the conceptions that we take to be religious and therefore central in the making of humanity’s adaptation. The text amounts to a manual for effective ritual, illustrated by examples drawn from a range of disciplines.