Eleanor A. Power

Social support networks and religiosity in rural South India

In recent years, scientists based in a variety of disciplines have attempted to explain the evolutionary origins of religious belief and practice1–3. Although they have focused on different aspects of the religious system, they consistently highlight the strong association between religiosity and prosocial behaviour (acts that benefit others). This association has been central to the argument that religious prosociality played an important role in the sociocultural florescence of our species4–7. But empirical work evaluating the link between religion and prosociality has been somewhat mixed8–11. Here, I use detailed, ethnographically informed data chronicling the religious practice and social support networks of the residents of two villages in South India to evaluate whether those who evince greater religiosity are more likely to undertake acts that benefit others. Exponential random graph models reveal that individuals who worship regularly and carry out greater and costlier public religious acts are more likely to provide others with support of all types. Those individuals are themselves better able to call on support, having a greater likelihood of reciprocal relationships. These results suggest that religious practice is taken as a signal of trustworthiness, generosity and prosociality, leading village residents to establish supportive, often reciprocal relationships with such individuals.

Positive and Negative Effects of a Threatened Parrotfish on Reef Ecosystems

Species that are strong interactors play disproportionately important roles in the dynamics of natural ecosystems. It has been proposed that their presence is necessary for positively shaping the structure and functioning of ecosystems. We evaluated this hypothesis using the case of the worlds largest parrotfish (Bolbometopon muricatum), a globally imperiled species. We used direct observation, animal tracking, and computer simulations to examine the diverse routes through which B. muricatum affects the diversity, dispersal, relative abundance, and survival of the corals that comprise the foundation of reef ecosystems. Our results suggest that this species can influence reef building corals in both positive and negative ways. Field observation and simulation outputs indicated that B. muricatum reduced the abundance of macroalgae that can outcompete corals, but they also feed directly on corals, decreasing coral abundance, diversity, and colony size. B. muricatum appeared to facilitate coral advancement by mechanically dispersing coral fragments and opening up bare space for coral settlement, but they also damaged adult corals and remobilized a large volume of potentially stressful carbonate sediment. The impacts this species has on reefs appears to be regulated in part by its abundance-the effects of B. muricatum were more intense in simulation scenarios populated with high densities of these fish. Observations conducted in regions with high and low predator (e.g., sharks) abundance generated results that are consistent with the hypothesis that these predators of B. muricatum may play a role in governing their abundance; thus, predation may modulate the intensity of the effects they have on reef dynamics. Overall our results illustrate that functionally unique and threatened species may not have universally positive impacts on ecosystems and that it may be necessary for environmental managers to consider the diverse effects of such species and the forces that mediate the strength of their influence.

Why Wage Earners Hunt: Food Sharing, Social Structure, and Influence in an Arctic Mixed Economy

Food sharing has been a central focus of research in human behavioral ecology and anthropology more broadly. Studies of food sharing have typically focused on either the individual’s motivations to share or the social formations and value systems that sharing produces. Here, we employ social network analysis to do both, investigating how strategic economic decisions, such as decisions about sharing, are embedded in and feed back onto social structure. This research is based on a questionnaire conducted with 110 Inuit households during 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Kangiqsujuaq, Nunavik, Canada. In Kangiqsujuaq, traditional Inuit resource harvesting and sharing practices coexist with and depend on opportunities and constraints in the cash economy. Food sharing in Kangiqsujuaq emerges as a complex social, political, and economic phenomenon that accomplishes different objectives for actors based on their social position. The network approach adopted in this research highlights the conjugate role of individual decisions and structural constraints in broader processes of social and cultural change. In the mixed economy of Kangiqsujuaq, food sharing, social structure, and political influence are intimately connected. The results suggest that economic and political inequality in the settlement are reinforced by the social structures produced through sharing.

Collective ritual and social support networks in rural South India

The scholarship on religion has long argued that collective worship helps foster social cohesion. Despite the pervasiveness of this contention, rigorous quantitative evaluations of it have been surprisingly limited. Here, I draw on network data representing the ties of social support among Hindu residents of a South Indian village to evaluate the association between collective religious ritual and social cohesion. I find that those who partake in collective religious rituals together have a higher probability of having a supportive relationship than those who do not. At the structural level, this corresponds to denser connections among co-participants. At the individual level, participants are more embedded in the local community of co-religionists, but are not disassociating themselves from members of other religious denominations. These patterns hold most strongly for co-participation in the recurrent, low-arousal monthly worships at the temple, and are suggestive for co-participation in the intense and dysphoric ritual acts carried out as part of an annual festival. Together, these findings provide clear empirical evidence of the lasting relationship between collective religious ritual and social cohesion.

The social significance of subtle signals

Acts of prosociality, such as donating to charity, are often analysed in a similar way to acts of conspicuous advertising; both involve costly signals revealing hidden qualities that increase the signaller’s prestige. However, experimental work suggests that grand gestures, even if prosocial, may damage one’s reputation for trustworthiness and cooperativeness if they are perceived as prestige enhancing: individuals may gain some types of cooperative benefits only when they perform prosocial acts in particular ways. Here, we contrast subtle, less obviously costly, interpersonal forms of prosocial behaviour with high-cost displays to a large audience, drawing on the example of food sharing in subsistence economies. This contrast highlights how highly visible prosocial displays may be effective for attracting new partners, while subtle signals may be crucial for ensuring trust and commitment with long-term partners. Subtle dyadic signals may be key to understanding the long-term maintenance of interpersonal networks that function to reduce unanticipated risks.Studying subtle signals of generosity is important to understand the long term maintenance of human cooperative networks. Certain types of low-cost food sharing among Martu women, for example, may signal commitment and cement cooperative ties.

Praxis and doxa: what a focus on ritual can offer evolutionary explanations of religion

Sterelny’s emphasis on praxis (practice, ritual) rather than doxa (belief) is an important pushback against overly mentalized explanations of the evolution of religion. By focusing on the issue of ...

The primacy of social support

In his target article, Wood links together distinct fields and disparate studies of religion to create a synthetic model of religion and well-being. I see much merit in Wood’s formulation, and I su...