THE SACRED IN HUMAN EVOLUTION 4016

INeither history nor anthropology knows of societies from which religion has been totally absent, and even those modern states that have attempted to abolish religion have replaced it with beliefs and practices which themselves seem religious. A century ago E. B. Tylor (1871), whom some consider "the father" of modern anthropology, attempted to account for the universality of religion by reference to the psychic unity of mankind. It is the experience of dreaming, common to all men, that has suggested to all men the existence of the soul, he argued, and it is from a primordial belief in the soul that religion in its manifold forms has evolved. But, as Durkheim (1961) asked at the beginning of this century, "How could a vain fantasy have been able to fashion the human consciousness so strongly and so durably?" He argued that it cannot be accepted that "systems of ideas like religions, which have held so considerable a place in history, and from which, in all times, men have come to receive the energy which they must have to live, should be made up of a tissue of illusions." We must agree with Durkeim, for it is both plausible and prudent to assume, at least initially, that anything which is universal to human culture is likely to contribute to human survival. Phenomena that are merely incidental, or peripheral, or epiphenomenal to the mechanisms of survival are hardly likely to become universal, nor to remain so if they do. When we consider further that religious beliefs and practices have frequently been central to human concerns and when we reflect upon the amount of time, energy, emotion, and treasure that men have expended in building religious monuments, supporting priestly hierarchies, fighting holy wars, and in sacrifices to assure their well-being in the next world, we find it hard to imagine that religion, as bizarre and irrational as it may seem or even be, has not contributed positively to human evolution and adaptation. Surely so expensive an enterprise would have been defeated by selective pressures if it were merely frivolous or illusory. Indeed, it would have succumbed to selection if its importance were not comparable to its cost, and our thesis here is that religion has not merely been important but crucial to human adaptation. I take the term adaptation to refer to the processes by which organisms