Marcus Unger
Ib anthro period 4.
Ms maier

For centuries, Religion or the belief in the supernatural has unified people under a single set of ethics or beliefs. Using “ the adaptive value of religious ritual”, The question of how belief in the supernatural contributes to ones sense of personal security, individual responsibility and social harmony will be divulged into. The adaptive value of religious ritual is an ethnography By Richard sosis, An anthropology professor. The ethnography takes place in the 1980s- 2000s partially in Israel. It seeks to find the rationale behind costly rituals as well as its adaptive value throughout our history as a species. Or in other words, the reasons for why it has survived evolution and the test of time. There can be bias due to the fact that the study focuses primarily on The practice of Jewish Orthodoxy, The writer is not orthodox and therefor his relativism can be put into question.
In most belief systems, Gods are displayed as having human emotions. Stories of their exploits involve types of behavior that are rewarding as well as unrewarding behavior. These Beliefs which encompass a religious society use these emotional guidelines as templates for social harmony. Interpersonal relationships are the back bone of functioning societies , making them very important and the need for these portrayal of gods to be passed down. Societies such as the Orthodox Jews or the Japanese understand that the notion of harmony within a group (“wa in Japanese” , shalom in Hebrew) requires a level of attitudal cooperation and recognition of social roles. People of these faiths recognize that sacrifice and ritual is necessary in both the maintaining of hormonal relations both personally and with their god or moral code. Thus certain sacrifices such as attire, promote functionalism within a group. This can be exemplified in the articles description of Orthodox Jews donning Heavy black clothing despite the sweltering Israeli Heat and humidity. Such a sacrifice is deemed necessary for ones devotion. Along with pious sacrifice, it is also vital for these people to work in cohesion with one another, Hence interpersonal relationships. Acting for the benefit of ones neighbor or fellows also constitutes as service to god and allows for people to form strong bonds of pride. This statement of cohesion is best exemplified through the articles experiment using a game involving sheckles with secular and non secular participants. Despite not knowing eachother when playing a game that involved borrowing and cooperation , non-secular participants performed high than secular participants. This can be attributed to their level of fluidity on the same plane