The Sacred in Human Evolution

seem religious. A century ago E. B. Tylor (1871), whom some consider father of modern anthropol ogy, attempted to accou nt for the univer­ sality of religion by reference to the psychic unity of mankind. It is the experience of dreaming, common to all men, that has suggested to al l men the existence of the soul, he argu ed, and it is from a primordial belief in the sou l that rel igion in its manif old forms has evolved. But, as Durkheim (1961) asked at the beginning of this cent ury, How could a vain fantasy have been able to fashion the human consciou sness so stro ngly and so dur­ abl y? He argued that it cannot be accepted that systems of ideas like reli­ gions, which have hel d so considera ble a place in history, and from which, in al l times, men have come to receivc the energy which they must have to li ve, should be made up of a tissu e of il lus ions. We must agree with Durkeim, for it is both plausibl e and pru dent to assu me, at le ast initi ally , that anything which is universal to human culture is likely to contribute to human surviv al. Phenomena that are merely inci­ dental, or peripheral, or epiphenomenal to the mechanisms of survival are har dly likely to become universal , nor to remain so if they do. When we consider further that rel igiou s bel iefs and practices have fre quently been central to human concerns and when we reflect upon the amou nt of time, energy, emotion, and treasure that men have expended in buil ding rel igiou s monuments, supporting priestly hierarchies, fighting holy wars, and in sacri­ fices to assu re their well -being in the next world, we find it hard to imagine that rel igion, as bizarre and irrational as it may seem or even be, has not contribu ted positi vely to human evolu tion and adaptation. Surely so expen­ siv e an enterprise would have been defeated by sel ectiv e pressu res if it were merel y frivolous or il lus ory. Indeed, it would have succumbed to sel ection if its importance were not comparable to its cost, and our thesis here is that religion has not merely been important but crucial to hu man adaptation. I take the term adaptation to refer to the processes by which organisms