This book introduces the main substantive and theoretical strands of this `turn to culture' through the medium of a particular case study: that of the Sony Walkman. Using the example of the Walkman, the book indicates how and why cultural practices and institutions have come to play such a crucial part in our lives, and introduces some of the central ideas, concepts and methods of analysis involved in conducting cultural studies.

Doing Cultural Studies: The Story of the Sony Walkman

Introduction. An Ambitious Agenda. Scientific. Comprehensive. Explanatory. Psychology of ... Religion. A New Direction. Attachment Theory. Evolutionary Psychology. The Plan of This Book. Introduction to Attachment Theory. Backdrop. The Attachment System. Other Related Systems. The Phenomenology of Attachment. Individual Differences in Attachment in Childhood. Multiple Attachment Figures. Internal Working Models and the Stability of Attachment Patterns. Attachment in Adulthood. Attachment and Adult Romantic Relationships. Individual Differences in Adult Romantic Attachment. Factorial and Dimensional Models. The Formation and Development of Adult Love Bonds. An Alternative Approach to Adult Attachment. Attachment and Evolutionary Psychology. Summary and Conclusions. God as an Attachment Figure. Religion as Relationship. But Is It Really an Attachment Relationship? Seeking and Maintaining Proximity to God. Proximity in Belief and Myth. Facilitating Psychological Proximity. Prayer. Other Religious Behaviors. God as a Haven of Safety. Crisis and Distress. Illness and Injury. Death and Grieving. God as a Secure Base. Phenomenology. Psychological Outcomes. Responses to Separation and Loss. Summary and Conclusions. More on Religion as an Attachment Process: Extensions and Limitations. Religion and Love. What Kind of Love? Romantic Attachment vs. Attachment to God. God as a Parental Figure. Individual Differences in Images of God. God as a Benevolent Caregiver. God as Controlling and Demanding. Children's Beliefs about God. Beyond God: Extensions and Limitations. To Generalize, or Not to Generalize? The Problem with Parsimony. Other Forms of Attachment (or Not) in Religion. Relationships with Other Supernatural Beings. Relationships with Religious Leaders. Relationships with Fellow Worshipers and Other Peers. Relationships with Groups. Nontheistic Religions. Summary and Conclusions. Individual Differences in Attachment and Religion: The Correspondence Hypothesis. Mental Models and the Correspondence Hypothesis. Correspondence in Childhood and Adolescence. Correspondence in Adulthood. Correspondence Across Cultures. Internal Working Models of Self and Others. Continuity from Childhood to Adulthood. The Socialized Correspondence Hypothesis. The Two-Level Correspondence Hypothesis. 'Socialization' as an Alternative Explanation. The Inadequacy of 'Socialization' as Explanation. The Epidemiology of Beliefs. Individual Differences Revisited. Summary and Conclusions. God as a Substitute Attachment Figure: The Compensation Hypothesis. Individual Differences and Religious Conversion. Individual Differences in Childhood Attachment and Conversion. Sudden Religious Conversion. Other Evidence for a Compensation Model. A Two-Process Model. Individual Differences in Adult Attachment. Contextual Factors in Religious Change. Separation and Loss. Bereavement. Relationship Dissolution. Unavailability of Attachment Figures. Perceived Inadequacy of Human Attachment Figures. Cultural Factors. Summary and Conclusions. Attachment in Context: Introduction to Evolutionary Psychology. Evolutionary Psychology as a Paradigm or Metatheory. Adaptation and Natural Selection. Adaptations. 'Selfish Genes' and Inclusive Fitness. Domain-Specificity and the Mental-Organs Model. Nature 'versus' Nurture. Stone-Age Minds in Modern Environments. Individual Differences in Evolutionary Context. Stable Environmental Differences. Direct Genetic Effects. Frequency-Dependent Adaptive Strategies. Early Environmental Calibration. An Example of Facultative Strategies: Human Mating. Are Evolutionary Explanations Unfalsifiable? Some Illustrative Examples: Politics, Music, and Sports. Summary and Conclusions. Attachment Theory in Modern Evolutionary Perspective. Childhood Attachment in Modern Evolutionary Perspective. Parental Caregiving and Parent-Offspring Conflict. Individual Differences in Childhood Attachment. Attachment and Reproductive Strategies. The Belsky, Steinberg,

Attachment, Evolution, and the Psychology of Religion

We develop a cultural evolutionary theory of the origins of prosocial religions and apply it to resolve two puzzles in human psychology and cultural history: (1) the rise of large-scale cooperation among strangers and, simultaneously, (2) the spread of prosocial religions in the last 10-12 millennia. We argue that these two developments were importantly linked and mutually energizing. We explain how a package of culturally evolved religious beliefs and practices characterized by increasingly potent, moralizing, supernatural agents, credible displays of faith, and other psychologically active elements conducive to social solidarity promoted high fertility rates and large-scale cooperation with co-religionists, often contributing to success in intergroup competition and conflict. In turn, prosocial religious beliefs and practices spread and aggregated as these successful groups expanded, or were copied by less successful groups. This synthesis is grounded in the idea that although religious beliefs and practices originally arose as nonadaptive by-products of innate cognitive functions, particular cultural variants were then selected for their prosocial effects in a long-term, cultural evolutionary process. This framework (1) reconciles key aspects of the adaptationist and by-product approaches to the origins of religion, (2) explains a variety of empirical observations that have not received adequate attention, and (3) generates novel predictions. Converging lines of evidence drawn from diverse disciplines provide empirical support while at the same time encouraging new research directions and opening up new questions for exploration and debate.

/pdf/the-cultural-evolution-of-prosocial-religions-3k5ywkwgmr.pdf

The cultural evolution of prosocial religions.

This article gives an overview of the origin of the concept of sustainable development by going far back in history to trace its roots. It shows how the idea of sustainability evolved through the centuries as a counter to notions of progress. The historical context in the latter half of the 20th century is outlined, in which a paradigm shift in thinking about development caused sustainable development to occupy the centre stage in development discourses.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/15693430600688831

Sustainable development – historical roots of the concept

Anthropologists have repeatedly noted that there has been little theoretical progress in the anthropology of religion over the past fifty years.1–7 By the 1960s, Geertz2 had pronounced the field dead. Recently, however, evolutionary researchers have turned their attention toward understanding the selective pressures that have shaped the human capacity for religious thoughts and behaviors, and appear to be resurrecting this long-dormant but important area of research.8–19 This work, which focuses on ultimate evolutionary explanations, is being complemented by advances in neuropsychology and a growing interest among neuroscientists in how ritual, trance, meditation, and other altered states affect brain functioning and development.20–26 This latter research is providing critical insights into the evolution of the proximate mechanisms responsible for religious behavior. Here we review these literatures and examine both the proximate mechanisms and ultimate evolutionary processes essential for developing a comprehensive evolutionary explanation of religion.

/pdf/signaling-solidarity-and-the-sacred-the-evolution-of-27w7oc17yk.pdf

Signaling, solidarity, and the sacred: The evolution of religious behavior

"Tantalizingly rich ...this is a splendid book." (Greece and Rome). "Burken relegates his learned documentation to the notes and writes in a lively and fluent style. The book is recommended as a major contribution to the interpretation of ancient Greek myth and ritual. The breadth alone of Burkert's learning renders his book indispensable." (Classical Outlook). "Impressive...founded on a striking knowledge of the complex evidence (literary, epigraphical, archaeological, comparative) for this extensive subject. Burkert offers a rare combination of exact scholarship with imagination and even humor. A brilliant book, in which ...the reader can see at every point what is going on in the author's mind - and that is never uninteresting, and rarely unimportant." (Times Literary Supplement). "Burkert's work is of such magnitude and depth that it may even contribute to that most difficult of tasks, defining myth, ritual, and religion. [He] locates his work in the context of culture and the history of ideas, and he is not hesitant to draw on sociology and biology. Consequently his work is of significance for philosophers, historians, and even theologians, as well as for classicists and historians of Greek culture. His hypotheses are courageous and his conclusions are bold; both establish standards for methodology as well as results. " (Religious Studies Review).

Structure and History in Greek Mythology and Ritual

Preface Introduction 1. "Who Are Public Workers": The Migrant Craftsmen Historical Background Oriental Products in Greece Writing and Literature in the Eighth Century The Problem of Loan-Words 2. "A Seer or a Healer": Magic and Medicine "Craftsmen of the Sacred": Mobility and Family Structure Hepatoscopy Foundation Deposits Purification Spirits of the Dead and Black Magic Substitute Sacrifice Asclepius and Asgelatas Ecstatic Divination Lamashtu, Lamia, and Gorgo 3. "Or Also a Godly Singer": Akkadian and Early Greek Literature From Atrahasis to the "Deception of Zeus" Complaint in Heaven: Ishtar and Aphrodite The Overpopulated Earth Seven against Thebes Common Style and Stance in Oriental and Greek Epic Fables Magic and Cosmogony Conclusion Abbreviations Bibliography Notes Index of Greek Words General Index

The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age

Introduction 1. Personal Needs in This Life and after Death 2. Organization and Identities 3. Theologia and Mysteries: Myth, Allegory, and Platonism 4. The Extraordinary Experience Abbreviations Bibliography Notes Index of Greek Terms General Index

Ancient Mystery Cults

* Introduction I. Platonic and Pythagorean Number Theory * The Platonic Theory of Ideal Numbers * The Philosophy of the Pythagoreans according to Aristotle * The Later Non-Aristotelian Tradition and Its Sources, Speusippus, Xenocrates, and Heraclides Ponticus * Pythagoreanism in Plato and the Origin in Platonism of the Pythagorean Tradition II. Pythagoras in the Earliest Tradition * Source Problems * Historical Background * Metempsychosis and "Shamanism" Acusmata Acusmatici and Mat hematici * Early Evidence for Pythagoras as a Scientist? III. Philolaus * The Special Position of Philolaus' Book in the Pythagorean Tradition * The Spurious and the Genuine in the Philolaus Fragments * Reflections of Pythagorean Philosophy in the Fifth Century B.C.? IV. Astronomy and Pythagoreanism * The Structure of the World and the Planetary System * The Theory of Planetary Movements * The Cosmos of Philolaus * Harmony of the Spheres and Astral Immortality V. Pythagorean Musical Theory * Speculation, Experimentation, and Fiction * Number Symbolism and Calculation of Proportions in Philolaus VI. Pythagorean Number Theory and Greek Mathematics * Did the Pythagoreans Lay the Foundations of Greek Mathematics? * Pythagorean Arithmetic * Pythagorean Geometry and Mathematical Secrets * Number and Cosmos * Abbreviations * Bibliography * Greek Words Discussed * Index of Passages * General Index

Walter Burkert

Papers

Structure and History in Greek Mythology and Ritual

The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age

Ancient Mystery Cults

Lore and science in ancient Pythagoreanism

Greek Religion: Archaic and Classical