Скачать или смотреть Social Origins of Religion | How Religion Shaped Society

What if religion wasn’t made to explain the world — but to bind us together?

In this final episode of our Origins of Religion series, we explore the Social Origins of Religion — how shared beliefs, sacred rituals, and symbolic systems helped early humans scale from small tribal bands into vast civilizations.

From Us vs. Them-ing to costly signaling and the emergence of moralizing Big Gods, we’ll uncover how religion evolved as a social technology — one that forged unity, enforced cooperation, and synchronized us into something far greater than the sum of our parts: a human superorganism.

Learn how:
🔹 Religious symbols created trust among strangers
🔹 Sacred laws formed the backbone of ancient societies
🔹 Shared rituals synchronized group behavior
🔹 Belief in watchful gods encouraged prosocial action

Featuring insights from Émile Durkheim, Robin Dunbar, Ara Norenzayan, and more — this video takes you from prehistoric clans to sprawling empires to examine how religion helped build the world we live in today.

📺 Chapters
0:00 Intro
4:55 Us vs. Them-ing
10:25 Costly Signaling & Big Gods
14:25 The Birth of Civilization
19:57 Ritual Synchrony of the Superorganism
23:49 Final Thoughts

00:00 Intro


Intro Music : Pouncin and Bouncin - The Soundlings