Bringing Ritual to Mind: Psychological Foundations of Cultural Forms

Authors

Robert N. McCauley, Emory University
E. Thomas Lawson, Institute of Cognition and Culture at Queen's University Belfast

Department

Psychology

Document Type

Book

Files

Description

This study explores the psychological foundations of religious ritual systems. In practice, participants recall rituals to ensure a sense of continuity across performances, and those rituals motivate them to transmit and re-perform them. Most religious rituals exploit either high performance frequency or extraordinary emotional stimulation to enhance their recollection. Robert N. McCauley and E. Thomas Lawson assert that participants' cognitive representations of ritual form explain much about the systems. Reviewing a wide range of evidence, they explain religions' evolution.

Call number in WMU's library

BL600 .M36 2002

ISBN

978-0521016292

Publication Date

9-2-2002

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

City

Cambridge

Disciplines

Psychology

Citation for published book

McCauley, Robert N., and E. Thomas. Lawson. Bringing Ritual to Mind Psychological Foundations of Cultural Forms. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2002. Web.

Recommended Citation

McCauley, Robert N. and Lawson, E. Thomas, "Bringing Ritual to Mind: Psychological Foundations of Cultural Forms" (2002). All Books and Monographs by WMU Authors. 475.
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/books/475