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680 pages, Hardcover
First published September 8, 2020
The estimated probability of a historical transition to a complex chiefdom when no such punishment existed was - surprisingly - close to zero. By contrast, when ancestral communities already had beliefs in supernatural punishments for important moral violations, there was a roughly 40% chance of scaling up in complexity every three centuries or so.
the powerful Mughal emperor Akbar the Great tried to unify his Muslim and Hindu subjects by making his own highly tolerant religious creed ... At its peak, the powerful emperor's religion accumulated a total of only 18 prominent adherents before vanishing into history.
My point is that throughout human history, rulers needed religion much more than religion needed rulers.
„The Matsigenka permits neither repression nor criticism. Should someone, even the missionary whose moral authority he recognizes, try to orient, correct or prevent his behavior, he departs immediately with the phrase: ‘Here one can’t live; nothing but gossip and rumors; I’m going where no one will bother me and I will bother no one.’“