Religious systems show the key properties of evolutionary systems: heritability, variation, and change. Yet they have only recently begun to be studied from an explicitly evolutionary perspective. In this talk, I will describe research on the origins of organised religion in hunter-gatherer societies, the co-evolution of organised religions and social hierarchies in early Austronesian societies, and patterns of secularisation across modern nations. Across these studies, I use phylogenetic comparative methods to test evolutionary theories of religion and discuss how the costs and functions of religion have likely changed over the course of human history.

About the Speaker

Dr Joseph Watts uses comparative methods to study the cultural evolution of human thought and behaviour. 

Dr. Watts is a social scientist interested in how human evolution, culture and cognition interact. He leads the Cultural Dynamics Lab at in School of Psychology, Speech and Hearing at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand.

Online registration details: 

https://anu.zoom.us/meeting/register/91BMNb3fTky03uLkiVIHtA