ARC 25 Theopoiesis for ARC

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M. ERNANDES & M. WINKELMAN

Theopoiesis

or

The Production of God Concepts byBrain Structures and Operators

in Early Humans

Michele (Michael) Ernandes:

Department of Historical-Archaeological, Socio-Anthropological and Geographical

Heritage,

Palermo University, Scientific Centre of the Polytechnic of the Mediterranean, Italy.

(i. e., Dipartimento di Beni Culturali Storico-Archeologici, Socio-Antropologici e

Geografici, Universit di Palermo, Italia)

Email: [email protected]

Michael Winkelman:

School of Human Evolution & Social Change

Arizona State University

Email: [email protected]


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of Hominini endowed with low sexual dimorphism (as in genusHomo), there wasnt any

individual that could act as realistic example of a Being with immense power. How did

it happen, therefore, that among human beings with a low male-male competition social

system we can find a projection in the superhuman world of a being with immense

power that should have to be associated with a high male-male competition social

system? A possible answer is that the human brain preserved structures and hierarchy

forming functions in its R-complex. Consequently we can deduce that at some time in the

course of human evolution the hierarchy forming structure of the R-complex has been set

free from the inhibitory action of the Limbic System; this was presumably a consequence

of a strong external stimulus which, causing a psychic trauma, weakened the inhibitory

action of the Limbic System. Indeed, according to evolutionary psychology, all human

behaviors are a product of internal mechanisms in conjunction with inputs that cause

activation of those mechanisms. We may presume that the input for the Prehistoric man

consisted in the acquisition of the awareness of his own mortality. Homo sapiens is

conscious of being mortal, but he does not recognize this fact as a natural datum. Instead

he feels that death is a violence he has to suffer: we may presume that in this way death

could have been considered by early humans. As Neocortex seeks to determine agents

who cause phenomena, early humans tried to find the cause of death, but failed to find an

empirical cause. Because of this shock, the Limbic System activity on R-complex would

have had a variation that caused the activation of hierarchic R-complex structures and that

led the Neocortical structures to accept the idea, proposed by the R-complex, that aPowerful, but unseen, Being was the agent of death. After this, the Neocortical

association areas, in relations to environment, developed various systems of religion.


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I. Definition, observations and assumption concerning the Biological Basis of

Religion

Tylor (1871) defined religion as belief in immaterial and extraordinary beings as

souls, ghosts, saints, angels, demons, and gods. This definition has been emphasized by

many authors, such as M. Harris (1989), who characterized religion in terms of belief in

the existence of one or more of such beings. There are other broader definitions of

religion, but the supernatural agent concept is invariably central, as it is for our present

purpose.

Since the 16th century, ethnographic studies have suggested that such religious ideas

are universal. In 1744 Giambattista Vico noticed that all cultures have had three

institution: Religion, marriage, and burial. Contemporary scholars also asserted the

universality of religious ideas, such as A. Brelich (1970): No society has been found,

even among the most primitive, which was devoid of any faith in divine person-like

beings. Such sentiments were elaborated by Rappaport (1971, p. 23), who claimed

Neither history nor anthropology knows of societies from which religion has been totally

absent and echoed more recently by Boyer (2003, p. 119) who asserts that Religious

beliefs and practices are found in all human groups.

Many anthropologists would concur that when an aspect of behavior is universal to

human societies, it is likely that it has some kind of genetic basis. It seems reasonable to

suppose that religion has a biological basis given that it is universal, and surmise that

some aspects of religious behavior and thought may be hardwired in a genetic

predisposition. Spirits seem naturally conceivable, thinkable, to the human mind - and the

human brain must have certain anatomic and physiologic structures which have favored

the birth of religious ideas that subsequently become a part of the cultural heritage. In this

vein, Boyer (2003, p. 123) notes that Cognitive science and neuroscience suggests a less

dramatic but perhaps more empirically grounded picture of religion as a probable,

although by no means inevitable by-product of the normal operation of human cognition.

Religious thoughts and behaviors may be studied at various levels:

afirst levelmay regard the biological bases, neurological or ethological, of religious

thought (Mandell 1980, Gazzaniga 1985, Alper 1996, Burkert 1996, Ernandes &

Giammanco 1998, Winkelman 2000, W. and Baker 2008, Boyer 2001, 2003, Hamer

2004);

a second level, phenomenologic-structural, the subordinate relationship of human

beings to divine beings (Hubert and Mauss 1898, van der Leew 1933, Widengren 1969,


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Burkert 1972), as well as semeiotic values of religious thoughts and behaviors;

a third, the relationships between social structures and peculiar shapes of credence

and rituals (Weber 1904/05, Durkheim 1912, and their sociological schools) or the social

value of religious rites (Sosis and Bressler 2003);

afourth, the economic-ecological one, the material goods used for religious rituals

(Firth 1963, Harris 1977).

These four approaches can coexist and interact synchronically with a fifth one, the

historical ordiachronic aspect.

Obviously, for a given religion, results of studies carried out on one level must be

coherent with the results obtained for other levels, since a comprehensive study must be

non-contradictory. Until now the tendency to favor a particular type of study to the

exclusion of others has prevailed (Pals 1996). This may have been reasonable in the past,

as these various approaches were discovered little by little, but it is less excusable now. In

1966 C. Geertz noted stagnation in the field of anthropology of religion and foreboded the

utilization of other disciplines such as philosophy, history or hard sciences with the aim of

achieving a thick description of religion.

As noted by Sosis and Alcorta (2003, p. 264), the multiple roles and complex

functions of religion render it difficult to capture within a single theoretical approach, so

it requires different methodological tools. In the present article we start from biological

evolution, neurobiology and ethology with the aim of furnishing the ground for a

multilevel study of religion.

Returning to Tylor's definition, religious thought consists of belief in extra-natural

power beings. We conceptualize an Immense Power Being as the most general and

comprehensive of these beings, defined as a supernatural being with immense power over

human lives. As has been established by Kant (1781), it is impossible to prove rationally

the existence or the non-existence of any Immense Power Being (or, in Kants words,

God).Consequently, our purpose is not to know if God exists or does not, but rather

consists in an effort to understand why God concepts exists so naturally and

comfortably in the human mind, why such ideas exist universally in human beings. It is

pertinent to investigate such a question by means of the natural sciences, because

Thoughts and beliefs are necessarily dependent on neuro-physiological activity of the

brain (Delgado 1969).

According to evolutionary psychology, all human (or animal) behavior is a product

of mechanisms internal to the person (or to the animal), in conjunction with inputs that

trigger the activation of those mechanisms. No mechanisms, no behavior; no input, no

behavior(adapted from Buss & Shackelford 1997, p. 607). If we consider the production

of ideas as a particular kind of behavior (an internal brain behavior), our aim then

consists in investigating the internal mechanisms and the input that had lead human mind


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to conceive the Immense Power Being concept.

II. MacLeans Triune Model of the Brain

Genetic predisposition operates through the development of encephalic structures.

In Vertebrates the Central Nervous System grows up as a dorsal tube that,

subsequently, is surrounded by vertebrae (thespinal cord) and by skull (the encephalon).

A canal goes along the tube and forms at first three vesicle with surrounding swellings

(forebrain, midbrain and hindbrain). These formations then become five ones:

telencephalon (endbrain), diencephalon (interbrain), mesencephalon (midbrain),

metencephalon (pons and cerebellum), and myelencephalon (medulla oblongata). (Fig. II.

1).

At the end of the development, the hindbrain vesicle is termed fourth ventricle, the

midbrain vesicle becomes thin and is called aquaeductus mesencephali (orcerebri), the

interbrain vesicle forms the third ventricle.

The telencephalic vesicle, in growing forward impeded by the frontal bone, in its

development overturns and covers the diencephalon, splitting and forming two lateral

ventricles. In a section of each telencephalic vesicle we may note four parts: the lateral

and medial basal ones, and the lateral and medial dorsal ones. (Fig. II. 2 a).In the basal parts neurons form some masses (called nuclei organglia), while in the

dorsal parts neurons are disposed in layers (normally three).

P. D. MacLean (1970-1990) elaborated a model of brain structure and evolution. He

described it as a Triune brain, because he located in it three principal phylogenetic

structures that have been superimposed and that have become integrated during evolution.

He termed these three basic types reptilian (Protoreptilian, R-complex), old mammalian

(Paleomammalian, Limbic System) and new mammalian (Neo-mammalian). The

heuristic value of this model, for a long time underappreciated, has been revalued by

many scholars (Winkelman 2000; Cory & Gardner 2002; Oatley 2004; Whybrow 2005).

Here we examine the triune brain model, reappraising it in relation with recent knowledge

in neurobiological and evolutionary sciences, and in terms of its applicability to

explaining the neurological basis of the Immense Power Being.

The R-complex

The protoreptilian brain represents a fundamental core of the nervous system: it

consists in the upper spinal cord, parts of the midbrain and the diencephalons, and the

lateral basal part of the telencephalic vesicle. The lateral basal telencephalon consists in


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the striatum and pallidum as main components, and in the substantia nigra, ventral

tegmental area and subthalamic nucleus as smaller components. The striatum comprises

dorsally the caudate nucleus and putamen, ventrally the nucleus accumbens and the

olfactory tubercle. The globus pallidus (orpallidum) consists in three parts: the internal

and the external segments, and the ventral pallidum (fig. II. 3). The ventral part of the

striatum and the ventral pallidum are also called paleostriatum, the dorsal striatum

neostriatum: however there is no evolutionary evidence supporting these names, that

must be considered old-fashioned (fig. II.2 c).

The medial basal part of the telencephalon gives rise to the septum, while the dorsal

part forms the pallium (or cortex): these structures are not included in the R-complex, not

because they are absent, but because they are less developed and are not indispensable in

determining the fundamental behaviors in Reptiles and Birds (so that the term Striatal

complex is more accurate but less suggestive than R-complex). The presence of the R-

complex as a stage in the brain evolution from Fish to Mammals has been corroborated by

subsequent research in anatomy and physiology. Reiner, Medina and Veenman (1998)

have found that both striatum and pallidum are typically much more cell poor in

Anamniotes (Fish and Amphibians) than they are in Amniotes (Reptiles, Birds and

Mammals). Moreover, neural pathways connecting basal ganglia and the telencephalic

cortex are less important in Reptiles and Birds than in Mammals (Striedter 2005), as it is

shown in fig II. 5 f.

According to MacLean, the R-complex in the brains of existing mammals derivesfrom a form of mammal-like reptiles that, in Permian and Triassic geologic periods,

populated the earth in large numbers. Even if for comparative neurobehavioral study, no

existing reptiles are directly in line with mammals, it has been noticed that most ancient

mammal-like reptiles were lizard-like in appearance, so that MacLean and following

scholars have favored the use of lizards in their comparative studies. Moreover, the

lizards chose are ones in which the cortical part of telencephalon is small, and not those

ones provided with evident pallial gyri, as the tegu lizard (Tupinambis teguixin), which

has a paleo and an archeo cortical gyri surrounding a neocortical gyrus.

MacLean (1973a, p. 8) wrote that the counterpart of the reptilian brain in mammals

is fundamental for genetically constituted forms of behavior as selecting homesites,

establishing territory engaging in various types of display, hunting, homing, mating,

breeding, imprinting, forming social hierarchies, and selecting leaders. In mammals, the

R-complex is necessary for ritualistic displays and the averbal communication associated

with them. At the human level certain behavioral tendencies are due to an inheritance

of dispositions mediated by this same, primal brain region. These include certain violent

reactions, the preference for routine or ritualistic actions, and some forms of

displacement activities (Isaacson 1982, p. 246).


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The Limbic System.

From Fish to Reptiles, the basal parts of the telencephalon are more abounding in

neurons than the dorsal parts, which appear as a thin mantle (the pallium) or cortex that

covers the lateral vesicle. In Mammals the cortex expands a lot, wrapping the basal part of

the telencephalon. Arins Kappers (1909) termed the lateral cortex (whose main derived

region is called piriform cortex) as paleopallium, and the medial cortex (whose main

structure is the hyppocampus) as archipallium. In these nouns the paleo- and archi-

prefixes have no more the temporal or evolutionary significance that first XX century

authors intended give them. Their significance, related topallium, is now only spatial (fig.

II 2 b, c and d). Paleo- and archipallium neurons are disposed in three layers: this

disposition is termed allocortex. In the phylogenetically subsequent neocortex, derived

from the dorsal pallium, neurons are disposed in six layers to form the isocortex. Paleo-

and archi-pallium form the largest regions of the Limbic System, which also includes the

olfactory bulb, septum, fornix, amygdala, and cingulated gyrus.

The paleomammalian brain, or the limbic system, represents an advance in neural

tissue because it represents a device for providing the animals that have this tissue with

better means of coping with the environment. Parts of the limbic system are concerned

with primal activities related to food and sex; others are related to emotions and feelings;

and still others combine messages from the external world with those from inside(Isaacson 1982, p. 246).

MacLean (1990) has identified three main limbic subdivisions located respectively in

the amygdale, septum, and thalamus that are a source of afferents to the limbic cortex (fig.

II. 4).

I) The amygdalar division comprises the amygdala together with the frontotemporal

limbic cortex; the amygdala is also connected with the hippocampus. This division is

primarily involved with fear, aggression, and mimic judgment (Morris et al. 1998;

Adolphs et al. 1998).

II) The septal division projects to the entire hippocampal formation and also includes

the entorhinal cortex (gyrus hippocampi). This division is mainly connected with sex

activities. The amygdala and septum serve as telencephalic internodes for neural circuits

relating the rostrally located olfactory apparatus: all together they form the

rhinencephalon.

III) The thalamocingulate division is comprised of the mesocortical cingulated areas

receiving afferents from the anterior and other thalamic nuclei. It also comprises

mammillary bodies of the hypothalamus. Differently from other parts of Limbic System,

the thalamocingulate division seems to have no representation in the reptilian brain

(MacLean 1990, p. 247). This division is concerned with three cardinal behavioral


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developments that, in addition to endothermy, characterize the evolutionary transition

from ancient Reptiles to Mammals. Namely: 1) Nursing, in conjunction with maternal

care; 2) audio-vocal communication for maintaining maternal-offspring contact; and 3)

play (MacLean 1990, p. 380). Nursing is due to the action of oxytocin, the mammalian

hypothalamic hormone that derives from the reptilian hormone mesotocin. This change

may be considered the biochemical border marking the transition from the primordial

Limbic System of Reptiles to the regular Limbic System of Mammals (Insel & Young

2000).

Another important modification has affected the vagus nerve. Only Mammals have a

myelinated, and therefore faster, vagus, so that heart activity may be quickly linked to the

Limbic systems emotions. According to the polyvagal theory (Porges 2001), in

mammals, both neocortical and reptilian strucutres, but primarily Limbic ones, control the

activity of the vagus and other cranial nerves that govern facial expressions and

vocalizations in social interactions: such non verbal communications of unconscious

emotions and conscious intentions constitute the bases of Primates social life.

The Limbic System may be seen as a regulator of the R-complex. Most of this

regulation seems to be inhibitory and acted via the serotonergic system. Laboratory

stimulation of the Limbic System often produces a suppression of R-complex ongoing

behaviors, whereas lesions made in it often seem to release various reptilian activities(adapted from Isaacson 1982, p. 246). This means that the mammalian R-complex is not

exactly the same as the reptilian R-complex: in fact the mammalian one receives new

inputs from limbic structures and it has also fit receptors (often different compared with

reptilian ones) for neuromodulators or neurotransmitters that mediates these inputs.

Furthermore, as early noted by MacLean (1970), alterations of the usual activities of

the Limbic System, e. g. by epileptic episodes, can produce various experiences and

feelings, as those associated with knowledge of fundamental truths, feeling of

depersonalization, hallucinations, and paranoid feelings.

Other observations about the action of the Limbic System on the R-complex will be

shown in the subsequent section ( III).

The cerebral cortex is the most evident part of human encephalon, and it is divided in

two hemispheres, which are connected by three fibrous structures: the corpus callosum,

and the anterior and posteriorcommissures. Each hemisphere is constituted by numerous

convex formations calledgyri, divided each other bysulchi. In each hemisphere we may

also note four regions called lobes: the frontal lobe comprises the upon ocular socket area

and behind the forehead up to near the top of the brain, where the central sulcus divides it

from the parietal lobe; the temporal lobe is located under frontal and parietal lobes and it


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covers a little lobe, the insular one; the occipital lobe forms the back of the brain (fig II. 5

a).

In a side view of a cross section of the brain (fig. II. 5 b), we can see a large gyrus

surrounding the corpus callosum: it is called cingulate gyrus and is constituted by

mesocortex, which is intermediate between allo- and isocortex. The cingulate gyrus, in

the basal brain, continues as piriform cortex (derived from the ancient lateral pallium).

Inside this latter is a structure derived from the ancient medial pallium (archicortex),

which is called hippocampus. Cingulate gyrus, piriform cortex and hippocampus

constitute the limbic cortex. Cingulate and rhinal sulchi divide the cerebral limbic cortex

from the Neocortex, that in apes and humans constitutes the major part of the cerebral

hemispheres.

The Neomammalian brain

The Neomammalian brain consists of the Neocortex and structures of the brainstem

with which it is connected, as lemnisci, pyramidal tracts, and neothalamus. The

Neocortex is, on the human level, the seat of language and, in general, it is the seat of

those behaviors that allow a person to tackle new and unexpected situations. The ability to

foresee the future resides in it. We owe conscious thought to the Neocortex: it is the main

seat of mind capabilities as self-consciousness or the connections of causality, as well

see in the following III .

The whole brain. As MacLean (1973a: 7; 1973b: 114) has made clear, the three

basal brain types show differences both in structure (1) and chemistry (2), and so they are

capable of functioning somewhat independently; but they are in no sense separate,

autonomous entities: they must intermesh and function together as a triune brain.

(1) As regards the structure, we have seen that in the R-complex neurons form

masses (nuclei or ganglia); in the Limbic System besides nuclei there are pallial (or

cortical) structures, in which neurons are disposed in three (allocortex) or more layers

(mesocortex). Neocortex has neurons disposed in six layers (isocortex).

(2) As regards the chemistry, researchers have found less marked differences: while,

for example, acetylcholine is typical, but not exclusive, of the R-complex (MacLean

1990: 38-43), dopamine and serotonin are well allocated in all three brain types.

Dopamine is synthesized by hydroxylation and subsequent decarboxylation of the

amino acid tyrosine (that may also derive from phenylalanine). In Mammals there are four

main dopaminergic pathways: (a) the nigro-striatal, (b) the infundibular, (c) the

mesolimbic and (d) the mesocortical ones (fig II 5 d, modified from Kandel et al. 1996).


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They function respectively most in (a) tuning of sensori-motor programs, (b) regulation of

hormone release in the pituitary gland, (c) modulation of sensory perception, maintaining

reward values from life experiences and, thus, motivation up to addiction or aversion, (d)

regulation of frontal cortex activity (Kandel et al. 1996).

Dopamine reward system originates in the ventral tegmental area of the midbrain and

projects to the nucleus accumbens of the ventral striatum. This system is termed

mesolimbic by Kandel and colleagues, who dont use the triune tripartition. In the

triune brain conception, it is more properly a reptilian subsystem (so in fig. II. 5 d we

have emphasized this pathway).

Serotonin (or 5-Hydroxytryptamine or 5-HT) is a compound produced in some

nervous centers starting from the amino acid tryptophan, and it exerts its effects by acting

as a classic neurotransmitter or as a neuromodulator (these effects are due to postsynaptic

receptors: 5-HT receptors are many and diversify serotonins effects in the various

encephalic regions. See Baumgarten & Gthert 1997). Serotoninergic neurons are present

in all animals that possess nervous systems, both Protostoma and Deuterostoma . In

Vertebrates, nervous centers in which 5-HT is produced are raphe nuclei. In fig. II. 5 e the

various mammalian raphe nuclei and their main projections are shown. According to ten

Donkelaar (1998: 1417) In reptiles, only two raphe nuclei can be distinguished: i. e. the

rostral, mainly small-celled nucleus raphes superior and the large caudal nucleus raphesinferior containing medium-sized to very large cells. The caudal part of the inferior

raphes nucleus may correspond to the raphes pallidus of mammals, the rostral part to the

mammalian nucleus raphes magnus. In the reptilian nucleus raphes superior may be

hidden a primordium of the mammalian nucleus raphes dorsalis. It seems that the

mammalian raphes obscurus has no homologue in the reptilian brain. Following

MacLeans model, in the serotonergic system we can distinguish a reptilian part (i.e. of

the R-complex) and a mammalian part (i.e. of the Limbic System), the latter being formed

in particular by raphes obscurus and dorsal raphes nuclei. Ascending fibers extend from

the pontine nuclei to several telencephalic regions, among which are basal ganglia.

So, the serotonergic systems evolution is an example of the evolution of the brain

according to MacLeans model. In fact we may distinguish in it a reptilian part which is a

regulator system inherent to the R-complex itself and to the spinal cord; and a limbic part

which greatly increases control over the R-complex and moreover has connections with

the Neocortex, in particular with prefrontal cortex which, according to MacLean (1978),

helps us to see deeply into other peoples feelings. Given its numerous projections, the

serotonergic system provides the most powerful system of integration and coordination

among MacLeans three brain types identified till now.


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III. Brain and Mind, Modules and Operators.

According to evolutionary psychologists, the human mind is organized into modules

ormental organs, each with a specialized design that makes it an expert in one arena of

interaction with the world. The modules basic logic is specified by our genetic program.

Their operation was shaped by natural selection to solve the problems of the hunting and

gathering life led by our ancestors in most of our evolutionary history (Pinker 1997, p.

21). We obviously agree with the main lines of evolutionary psychology, going over our

hunter and gathering ancestors past: in the evolutionary landscape we have depicted we

search the biological bases of god concepts in steps, first in Reptiles, ancient Mammals

and finally Primates.

Considering the global functioning of the Brain (i. e. the Mind), d'Aquili and

Newberg (1999) have considered its primary functional components, which they have

referred to as cognitive operators, which have specific functions that are localized in

specific regions of the brain and perform activities that underlie the capacities of the

mind. Newberg and dAquili (2001) have described eight cognitive operators: the holistic,

the reductionist, the causal, the abstractive, the binary, the quantitative, the emotional, and

the existential ones.As these authors noticed (2001, p. 187), the cognitive operator concept is clearly

similar to the concept of cognitive modules in that both are functions and are localizable

to one or more specific areas of the brain. However Cognitive operators differ from

cognitive modules, because cognitive modules represent more specific functions that are

localized to particular brain structures, whereas cognitive operators refer to more

generalized functions of many areas of the brain: modules are concerned more the

anatomy of the brain, operators more the physiology of the brain (or of the encephalon).

However brain functions also produce behaviors and unconscious knowledge. Let us

extend the operator concept from cognitive ones to encephalic ones. Encephalic

operators may be defined as behavioral, emotive or cognitive operators that are specific

functions performed by specific parts of the encephalon.

Proceeding along the evolutionary scheme of the triune brain, we may define, in the

R-complex, some behavioral operators, such as:

1) the specific operator, that allows the acquisition of species identity by the

imprinting (i. e. a fast form of learning that occurs only during a critical period in

the development of the organism);

2) the sexualoperator (for male or female distinct behaviors): its primary component


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may be located in the hypothalamic medial preoptic nucleus, which produces

gonadotropine releasing factors, that has different size in male and female

individuals, and that is crucially involved in the consummatory phase of

masculine copulatory behavior and also plays a prominent role in feminine

sexual behavior (Voogd et al. 1998, p. 1871); another behavioral important

component of this operator lies in the nucleus accumbens.

3) The territorialoperator: animals mark their territory with smells or other signals

of boundaries, warning other (conspecific) animals not to intrude;

4) the isopraxic (or mimetic) operator: it allows the animals to act in a like manner

and it is implicated in conspecific recognition and in most forms of

communication involved in self-preservation and in the procreation of the

species (MacLean 1990, p. 144) and, in the opposite sense, it serves to promote

species isolation; it is evident when conspecific animals behave in the same way

at the same time (group or mass isopraxis);

5) the hierarchic operator, whose primary component most likely lies in the

pallidum, and that is fundamental for engaging in various types of display.

R- complex may be also produce cognitive operators such as:

6) the space operator, that allows an animal to know its territory;

7) the time operator, that permits the chronology of events;

8) the sequence operator: from the interaction of the former two operators, an animalcan know that after an event a specific one follows or may follow;

9) the semiotic operator: it allows the right understanding, often species-specific, of

behaviors and non verbal communications between individuals inside the same

species (and to some extent, interaction with different species). It moreover

permits a symbolic codification of some behavior (for example, in Primates, the

penis display made by a male towards another male is not a sexual presentation,

but a challenge display), and let the animal receiving the message to decode and

correctly interpret the behavior it sees (e.g., the male to whom penis display is

directed must understand it as a challenge display and not as a sexual

presentation). Summarizing, the semiotic operator allows the correct coordination

of behavior operators actions listed above.

The main site of these cognitive operators seems to be the dorsal striatum (Parent and

Hazrati 1995).

The Limbic System may be considered the main site of several emotional operators, as

the follows:

10) thefearoperator. It allows graded behavioral outputs in regard to safe, unsafe and

life threatening environments. Its main nervous center is the amygdale, which acts


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in connection with the cortex, the hypothalamus, the parasympathetic (mainly the

vagus nerve) and the sympathetic systems. Porges (2001) has fully discussed the

connections among these nervous and endocrine organs. When sensations

received by sensory cortex are judged by the amygdale as caused by a safe

environment, the amygdale stimulates vagus action both directly and by

hypothalamic oxytocin, which is released to the sensory and motor portions of the

vagal complex and systemically to visceral organs. Oxytocin fosters a calm or

anti-stress state, and the sympathetic nervous system is not stimulated. When

the amygdale judges the environment as unsafe, it stimulates the hypothalamus to

release the hormone vasopressin: the vagus is inhibited, the sympathetic system

stimulated, and the animal is ready for fight or flight behaviors.

A life-threatening environment may elicit immobilization (i.e., feigning death or

passive avoidance) and fight-flight behaviors are inhibited. According to Porges

polyvagal theory, the neural regulation of the autonomic nervous system is the

result of three evolutionary stages, each with a connected behavioral strategy. The

first stage is characterized by immobilization behaviors due to the action of a

primitive unmyelinated vagus that responds to threat by depressing metabolic

activity (and this causes immobilization). The second stage is characterized by the

sympathetic nervous system that is capable of increasing metabolic outputs and

inhibiting the visceral vagus to foster mobilization behaviors necessary for fight or

flight. These two stages of the fear operator characterize the reptilian limbicsystem. The third stage, unique to mammals, is characterized by a myelinated

vagus that can rapidly regulate cardiac output to foster engagement and

disengagement with the environment. As a rule, mammals are active in the second

and third stage of this evolutionary operator, but in threat environment may

regress to the first stage, and subsequent immobilization.

11) The aggression operator: it seems that we may distinguish various aggression

operators, as, at first, between predatory or interspecific aggression and the

intraspecific one. The last is linked to the hierarchic operator of the R-complex

and has its limbic component mainly in the amygdala.

12) Also the mimic judgmentoperator has its focus in the amygdalar complex. It is

very important for those mammals that are able to change their face expression, as

mainly primates do. Face expressions are linked to the Autonomic Nervous

System, as Porges (2001, p. 123) has remarked: The neomammalian vagus is

neuroanatomically linked to the cranial nerves that regulate social engagement via

facial expression and vocalization. A primordium of the mimic judgment

operator also exists in the brain of vertebrates that are each other stimulated by

visual signals. In reptiles and birds emotional or intentional (as aggressive, sexual

and other) signals are not given by facial muscles movements, but by skin color


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changes, ruffling up of feathers, shows of cutaneous appendixes (i. e. skin capes

or fans as in the genus Amphibolurus). Humans employ plumages, mantles,

headpieces and other various outfits to show their rank or their well or ill

disposition towards other humans: the human R-complex unconsciously and

immediately decodes and interprets these signals.

13) The falling in love operator allows pair bonds establishing. The

neurobiological bases of this behavior have been studied only recently: Pair bonds

are not very frequent in mammals, but, in the species in which they exist, seem to

be linked to the activity of the rhinencepha-lon, and to the each other smell

recognition of the individuals.

It seems that in the human pair bond instauration there is the involvement both of

the serotonergic (Marazziti et al. 1999) and dopamine (Aron et al. 2005) systems.

The initial serotonin tone deficiency (observed by Marazziti et al.) may have the

role of paving the way to the reward function of the subsequent dopaminergic

action (observed by Aron et al.).

14) The call operator activity is triggered when the pup feels to be neglected by its

parents and in turn triggers in them:

15) the nursing operator activity, that, as we have said above, depends on the

oxytocin release. The call and nursing operators are not in action only, or towards,

infancy: in some emotional circumstances they are active even and towards adults

(all the more reason it happens in Homo sapiens that is a neothenic species, inwhich infancy features and behaviors persist or could reappear along the life).

16) The attachment operator allows the establishment of a peculiar bond between

pups and parents. It does not operate from birth in all the species, and this makes

possible the adoption of a forsake (or an orphan) pup by other adults. Its action

becomes evident when the pup is able to distinguish one another its neighbors,

preferring some of them and fearing others.

17) the play operator allows pups to learn their specific behaviors according to the

various circumstances. So behaviors of Mammals are less fixed and stereotyped

than behaviors of most Reptiles and Birds. (Ethologists have observed play-like

behaviors in some birds). Acquired behaviors and knowledge are, as a rule,

proportional to the playing age period, which varies among the species, and within

a species, among individuals (in the human species, experimental scientists may

be considered boys that are playing despite their adult feature).

The Limbic System may be considered the primarily seat of a cognitive operator, the

existential one.

18) The existential (or ontological) operator assigns a sense of existence or non

existence to the sensory information processed by the brain. It likely gives also the


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sense of existence to the thoughts elaborated by other parts of the encephalon,

such as the R-complex or the Neocortex. In other terms, this operator gives a

sense of reality to beliefs, regardless of whether they might be non contradictory

or contradictory, or counterintuitive, according to Neocortical operators.

Emotional and existential operators may be assumed as generally functioning in

Mammals. In humans, the existential operator, that is cognitive but not necessarily

rational, is linked to limbic emotional operators. MacLean wrote (1973 b, p. 123)

concerning the feelings associated with knowledge of fundamental truths: It seems that

the ancient limbic system provides the ingredients for the strong affective feeling or

conviction that we attach to our beliefs, regardless of whether they are true or false!

The Neocortex is the main site of most cognitive operators.

The following list summarizes data from dAquili and Newberg (1999) and Newberg et

al. (2001) for human mind operators, from the holistic to the quantitative one. To these

we add the linguistic, the insight, and the metacognition operators.

19) the holistic operator enables the organism to view reality as a whole (gestalt). It

likely rises from the activity of the parietal lobe in the non dominant hemisphere

(i. e., in most humans, the right one);

20) the reductionist operator allows the mind to see the whole broken down into its

component parts; it functions in the opposite manner to that of the holistic

operator, and it resides primarily in the dominant parietal lobe (i. e., in mosthumans, the left one), that so is involved in reductionist and analytical processes,

while the non dominant parietal lobe is involved in holistic and synthetic ones.

The corpus callosum allows connection between the two parietal lobes, permitting

the mind to combine the holistic and the reductionistic approaches.

21) The causaloperator enables the mind to interpret all of reality as a sequence of

specific causes and effects. It is believed to result from the connections between

the left frontal lobe and the left orientation association area; it spontaneously and

actively tends to impart a sense of causality on all the events. This function of the

mind is genetically hardwired in all humans, and may be called as the causal

imperative, or, according to Levy-Bruhl, the need of explanation.

22) The abstractive operator permits the organism to form general concepts. These

abstract concepts are constructed from the perception of individual facts and

various individual objects, derived from inductive functions. These operators

likely reside in the inferior portion of the parietal lobe. V. Ramachandran has

shown experimental evidence that the angular gyrus, belonging to the inferior

parietal lobule, plays a major role in metaphoric understanding.

23) The binary operator organizes reality by reducing the most complicated

relationships to simple pairs of opposites. According to d'Aquili and Newberg it


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resides in the inferior parietal lobe on the dominant side. However, as its activity

appears as a stereotyped one, this operator may have its unconscious origin in the

R-complex, likely in the caudate nucleus, which has numerous links with

neocortical association areas, so it may become conscious in the parietal lobe.

24) The quantitative operator permits the abstraction of quantity from the perception

of various elements, and allows mathematical operations but also the estimation of

time and distance, the awareness of amounts of things as food or enemies

approaching, and the need to order objects or sequences of events by some

numerical system. It likely resides in the general area of the inferior parietal lobe.

25) The linguistic operator has two neocortical components: the Brocas area in the

frontal lobe and the Wernickes area in the superior temporal gyrus, near the

inferior parietal lobule. The former area permits to speak correctly, the latter

allows understanding of the meanings of words or sentences that have been

heard. We may note that this area is contiguous with abstractive (and metaphoric)

area. The linguistic operator may be considered the cortical correspondent and

extension of the reptilian semiotic operator.

26) The insightoperator let us to succeed in problem solving in a sudden way, after

and by an unconscious elaboration and not by attempts and errors: the solution

reach the consciousness suddenly, often while the subject is thinking or doing

other matters. Remembering the exclamation shouted by Archimedes when the

solution of a problem suddenly rose to his consciousness while he was in the bath,this operator may be termed eureka (I found!) operator.

27) The metacognition (orempathy) operator permits the awareness of ones own

mental states and relates behaviors to social or environmental circumstances; it

allows the development of a theory of mind, i. e. an awareness of other peoples

minds content. It likely resides in frontal lobes, mostly in the right hemisphere

(Stuss et al. 2001), and mirror neurons (Gallese 2005) may contribute to this

operator. Theory of mind, metarepresentation, meta-cognition, mind

reading and mental state attribution are terms that refer to the awareness of

ones own mental states, beliefs, attitude and experiences, the relationship

between these and external events, and also of the mental states of others and the

implications for their motives and intentions, as summarized by Stuss et al.

(2001, p. 279). They note that only humans and a few species of great apes are

capable of attributing mental states to others, making us, as Kirkpatrick noted, all

amateur psychologists (2005, p. 274).

We may assume that some of these cognitive operators are functioning in Mammals

based on both to neocortical development and to complexity of connections among

cortical centers. The holistic, reductionist, abstractive, quantitative, insight and ethical


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operators may be assumed working in a variable way in the different Orders of

Mammalia, presumably more in Proboscidea (elephants), Cetacea (dolphins) and

Primates (apes). The binary operator seems to be typically human, as well as the

quantitative operator and its connections with other operators (as the linguistic and

abstractive ones) to allow symbolic mathematics rising (but see Hauser et al. 2002 with

regard to animal cognitive abilities and quantitative and linguistic functions).

The causal operator, as it is endowed with an high abstractive ability, is produced

thanks to human neocortical complexity: on the grounds of our knowledge, it seems to

result from the inclusion and development of a mammalian neocortical operator (which

has more or less abilities according to the various species), and that may be termed as

agency detection operator: it attributes an intentionality as the concrete causes of

phenomena.

A first description of an animal behavior that we may refer to this operator has been

reported by Darwin (1871, p. 67): my dog was lying on the lawn during a hot and still

day; but at a little distance a slight breeze occasionally moved an open parasol As it

was, every time the dog growled fiercely and barked. He must, I think, have reasoned

to himself in a rapid and unconscious manner that movement without any apparent cause

indicate the presence of some strange living agent, and no stranger had a right to be in his

territory.

Agency operator evolved in Mammals, by means of natural selection, not only for

intruder detection, but also for predator detection: Barrett (2000) has termed this brainfunction as agent detection device. As exposed by Boyer for humans (2001, p. 145), Our

evolutionary heritage is that of organisms that must deal with both predators and prey. In

either situation, it is far more advantageous to overdetect agency than to underdetect it.

The expense of false positive (seeing agents where there are none) is minimal, if we can

abandon these misguided intuitions quickly. In contrast, the cost of not detecting agents

when they are actually around (either predator or prey) could be very high. Thanks to

this over-developed neocortex,Homo sapiens can be said to possess a developed agency

detection operator, termed by J. Barrett (2000) as Hyperactive Agent-Detection Device

(HADD), extended also in a more abstract form, in the causal operator.

In Reptiles and Birds, R-complex has the ability of recording temporal sequences of

events. Such sequences in order of time do the function of sequences in order of cause:

this leads to routine activities, in conformity with precedent situations, ritualistic

behaviors or associations between events and behaviors that may involve both Central

and Peripheral Nervous Systems. Pavlov's conditioning experiments have shown that an

animal may unconsciously and automatically put in connection stimuli and answers that

normally have no link.

Natural selection has favored survival and reproduction of those animals that,

provided with a rudimentary forebrain, succeeded in linking and recording events that


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happened in a temporal sequence. Individual provided with such an ability had more

fitness because they could anticipate favorable events, repeat positive and avoid negative

experiences. Indeed, if it is true that not all the events that happen in a temporal order are

also linked by a casual order, it also true that all the events that have a causal connection

have also a temporal sequence: temporal relations are redundant in respect to causal ones,

but for animal surviving it is better overloading than lacking. This pseudo causal

association made by the R-complex is the fundamental, and almost the only, link among

events Reptiles and Birds may think. It is basic also for Mammals, but they can

elaborate sensorial or recorded data by means of the Neocortex. A mammal, in

comparison with a reptile, more easily forgets a connection if it does not happen

afterwards: this ability is linked to brain complexity.

In Mammals, the R-complex is connected with the Neocortex in a more complicated

way than in Reptiles and Birds. In Primates, as shown by Parent et al. (1995, p. 135),

inputs from the frontal lobe (motor cortex) terminate mostly in the lateral putamen to

constitute the sensorimotor striatal region (SMSR in fig. III. 1). Inputs from the

hippocampal and parahippocampal gyri, the cingulated cortex and the amygdala,

terminate in the nucleus accumbens and part of the olfactory tubercle to constitute the

limbic striatal region (LSR). Inputs from the prefrontal cortex as well as from associative

areas of the parietal and temporal lobes terminate in the head of the caudate nucleus and

the rostral part of the putamen to constitute the associative striatal region (ASR). So in the

mammalian R-complex we may locate at least four components: 1) a behavioral one,made up by globus pallidus and nucleus accumbens, that is the main seat of behavioral

operators as the specific, sexual, territorial, isopraxic, and hierarchic ones; 2) a senso-

motor component (which shows its weight in the Parkinsons disease); 3) a limbic

component and, 4), an associative one, as above described.

In Mammals the R-complex maintains the ability of fixing pseudo causal connections

among phenomena (post hoc, propter hoc). In the associative component of the mammal

R-complex may occur both the link among real events and the association, mostly

unconsciously, of ideas, memories or emotions originated in other brain areas such as the

Limbic System or the Neocortex. Particularly in humans, the associative striatum may

link not only real events, but also events imagined by Neocortex, Moreover, the pseudo

causal sequence may be reversed: not only from the cause to the effect, but given an

event then connect it with a cause. These free associations, unconscious and

reasonless, made by humans in ways that are structural similarly, but whose contents are

various in each being, had been discovered by psychoanalysis long time before their

cerebral origin had been located.

The thought processed by the reverberating circuit Neocortex R-complex

Neocortex etc., is called magical thought and it may be expressed by language.


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Magical thoughts, as that events which have been observed to occur simultaneously or to

follow a particular sequence will continue to follow the same pattern or that like

produces like (Vernon 1962, p. 65), may lead the development of ritualistic actions, also

up to obsessive and compulsive behaviors.

The Limbic System, particularly its serotonergic component, aims to inhibit the magic

and ritualized activity the associative striatum tends spontaneously to generate. But the

Limbic System, if it fails in doing so, then adds an emotive component to ritualistic or

compulsive behaviors, producing a released condition when they are completed, and an

anxious condition when they are brusquely interrupted or changed.

The Neocortex, as we have seen, has induction and causal operators, so that from

the particular observations that different phenomena are effects of certain causes, it infers

that every phenomenon is the effect of a cause. The abstractive operator lies in the

inferior portion of the parietal lobe, and the causal operator results from the connection of

the left association area /in the parietal lobe) with the frontal lobe: the parietal part of the

causal operator is close to the abstractive operator, and it seems that, for its activity, the

causal operator utilizes previous or almost contemporary investigations done by the

abstractive operator.

Therefore, the Neocortex, by means of its cognitive operators, allows humans some

rational way of interpreting, or explaining, the reality: it is able to do this more or less

well, according to its knowledge.

Summarizing, the link among phenomena elaborated by the whole brain may be :

a) a rational and verifiable one, if the Neocortex can find the cause-effect nexus;

b)a magic one, that is not verifiable, that is characterized by more or less high levels

of fancy, and that is held by faith. Magical thought has its unconscious origin in the

R-complex, and is made conscious by the Neocortex, which tries to give it an

appearance of rationality.


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IV. Dominance-Submission Behavior in Religion, and the Principles of

Uniformatism and of Correlation.

In 1821 F. Schleiermacher wrote that religion is the feeling of sheer dependence on

God (quoted by Burkert, 1996, p. 80), who afterwards adds: religion is generally

accepted as a system of rank, implying dependence, subordination and submission to

unseen superiors. The awareness of rank and dependence in religion is particularly clear

in all the ancient religions. God means power, rule, and honors due. (p. 81). As noted by

Morris (1967; 1994 p. 121) ... in a behavioral sense, religious activities consist of the

coming together of large groups of people to perform repeated and prolonged submissive

displays to appease a dominant individual. The dominant individual concerned takes

many forms in different cultures, but always has the common factor of immense power.

This notion of more powerful beings who determine the fate of humans is a widespread

tendency, if not the nucleus of religion.

Utilizing data from sciences as different as Neurobiology, Paleontology, and

Compared Ethology, we apply the Principle of Uniformitarianism, that, in its broader

form, affirms natural laws we observe in the present world are the same that operated in

the past and the same will operate in the future. In general terms, natural laws are

invariable both in space and in time. We seek to therefore understand the source of our

Supreme Power Being in the evolutionary pre-history of dominance and submission

relations in the animal kingdom.

The Principle of Correlation proceeds from the principle of uniformitarianism: if

particular phenomena, or peculiar features, of living beings regards their environment, or

regards themselves, are in correlation in the present world, we may infer that they were in

correlation also in the past. It implies that the knowledge of some documented by fossils

features allows us to infer the presence, in those beings of the past, of other non fossil, but

with the previous ones correlated, features.

However, the correlation principle must be used with caution, as two phenomena or

two features may show themselves together by chance. So we can correctly utilize the

correlation principle either when we know the causal relation which determines the

correlation, or when the statistical analysis allows us to exclude a more chance

correlation.

The hypothesis that religious behavior, religious thought and the origin of the

Powerful Being idea are natural may be substantiated by evidence of the roots of such

behavior among Hominids and non-human Primates. For confirmation of the validity of

this hypothesis we find the existence of a dominant chief figure, potential or in action,

to whom others show submission behavior.


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V. Dominance-Submission Behavior in Primates

In Primates strong links have been established between sexual organ or behaviors and

territoriality and dominance-submission behaviors, so that male genitals and sexual

behavior signify dominance on a territory or on a social group, while female genitals and

behavior become symbols of subordination. Wickler (1967) has described the so called

sentinel behaviorin baboons: one, or more, male dominant individuals sit at lookout sites

thighs spread and a display of partial erection. This display is regarded as an optical

marker of boundaries, warning other monkeys not to intrude (fig. V. 1 a). The male

squirrel monkey, seeing another male or its own image on a mirror, flexes the head to

one side, retracts the corners of the mouth while making high-pitched, peeping

vocalizations, spread one or both thighs, and makes thrusting movements with the fully

erect phallus (MacLean 1990, p. 171) (fig. V. 1 b).

The rostral two-thirds of the medial segment of the globus pallidus seems to be the

main site involved in mirror display and therefore in aggressive intraspecific behavior, or,

in other words, this part of the pallidum seems to be the main site of the hierarchic

operator.

Such valences of sexual behavior and genitals are also evident in Homo sapiens.MacLean (1990, p. 233) refers that Gajdusek (1970) has called attention to the parallel

between the display behavior of squirrel monkeys and certain rituals of Melanesian

tribes, or that some New Guinea groups when frightened, excited or surprised meet the

event by a penile display dance. This dance is similarly used to express both dominance

and aggression. At the present time the rugby team All Blacks displays the Maori haka

dance before any game. In many cultures in the world, house guards (stone or wooden

monuments showing an erect phallus) have been used to mark territorial boundaries (fig.

V. 1 c). In ancient Athens stylized statues of Hermes, endowed with an erect phallus,

were posed at street corners. (Fig. V. 1 d). The erect phallus, symbolized by some means

as, for example, the middle finger, is an human challenge display utilized by male or

female individuals (fig. V. 1 f).

For more than two centuries, Occidental men have found a discrete form of phallic

display: the neck-tie. Perhaps it is superfluous as a masculine signal, since bearded men

more easily give up tie in habitual dressing.

Returning to Primates, the mounting threat is a form of rank demonstration, and it

can be performed both by a male towards another male (fig. V. 2 b) and by a female

towards a lower rank female (fig V. 2 c). Female sexual presentation can be used by low


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rank individuals in order to acquire group chiefs support (fig V. 2 d). Primate female

sexual presentation may be observed in some human profane (fig. V. 2 e) or religious (fig.

V. 2 f) submissive gestures. Sometimes female sexual presentations are utilized as

challenge displays: doing so, the displayer means that he/she considers his/her opponent

as impotent.

VI Primate social behaviors and sexual dimorphism.

Primate societies may be grouped according to breeding systems as follows:

a) Monogamous breeding systems (Mo);

b) Single male breeding systems (SM);

c) Multi-male breeding systems (MM).

Several scholars (as Clutton-Brock and Harvey 1977; Leutenegger and Kelly 1977;

Harvey et al. 1978; Pickford and Chiarelli 1986; Hinde 1987) have attempted to correlate

these systems with male/female sexual dimorphism in body size and in canine tooth size.

These studies have shown that, at first view, monogamous species show a very low

dimorphism, while single-male and multi-male species show a variable degree: as Buss

(1999, p. 286) has summarized these studies the greater the effective polygyny the more

pronounced the sexual dimorphism. However, results from in-dept studies have shownless linearity: after a long series of studies (as Plavcan et al 1992, 1997), Plavcan (2001)

has made clear that sexual dimorphism is more related to male-male competition levels

than to breeding systems.

Plavcan and van Schaik (1992) classified primate species into four competition

levels, labeled from 1 to 4, on the basis of the intensity and potential frequency of

male-male competition.

Competition level 1 contains low-intensity, low-frequency species.

Competition level 2 contains low-intensity, high-frequency species.

Competition level 3 contains high-intensity, low-frequency species.

Competition level 4 contains high-intensity, high-frequency species.

Low-frequency competition is typical of breeding groups that contain only a single,

adult male: so monogamous species belong to level 1, while single-male species belong to

level 3. But species in which single male breeding groups come together to form large

groups daily, such as Papio hamadryas, Theropithecus gelada, and Nasalis larvatus,

belong to level 4 because they are high frequency species. Multi-male species mainly

belong to competition levels 2 and 4.


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Primates breeding and social systems, some representative species and their

competition levels, as estimated by Plavcan and van Schaik (1997, p. 347-348), are shown

in table VI. 1.

VII. Dominance-Submission Behavior in Hominin Phylogeny.

Homo sapiens is an African ape, belonging to the order ofPrimates, infraorder

Catarrhinae, that is now formed by two superfamiliae, Cercopithecoidea and

Hominoidea. Evolution ofCatarrhinae occurred in Africa and Eurasia. The first family of

catarrhins was Propliothecidae, whose main genera were Propliopithecus and

Aegyptopithecus. This latter one, a cat size monkey, tail having and showing an evident

canine size sexual dimorphism, is considered as the ancestor of both Cercopithecoidea

andHominoidea, the first ones having a tail and quadrupedal walk, the second ones tail

absence and the possibility of braching gait.Proconsul,Dryopithecus, Oreopithecus, and

Ouranopithecus are the main genera of Miocene fossil Hominoidea. The 8 Myr ago

common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees was chimplike forest dwelling and

predominantly arboreal and fruit-eating (Wood & Brooks 1999, p. 219).

The tectonic fracture series forming the African Rift Valley system caused, about 8-6

Million years ago, a geographic barrier that divided Hominoids apes in two distinct

populations, and the differentiation of the eastern environment respect the western one.This latter remained, and still does, an equatorial forest, while in the east side, owing to a

growing dry environment, as a result of disturbances in atmospheric circulations caused

by the Rift Valley, disperse woods succeeded in the first millennia, and then savannah

developed.

The eastern (future Hominini) and the western (future Panini) populations of

Hominids were so each other isolated and became subject to increasingly different

selective pressure, as Hominins faced at first disperse woods and subsequently the

savanna, while Panins remained in equatorial forest, where they differed into two species,

Pan throglodytes andP. paniscus.

The most ancientHominini so far discovered, and dated back to 5.8 5.2 Mya, have

been assigned to the species Ardipithecus kadabba (Haile-Selassie et al. 2004). Fossils

happen chimplike and the environment in which they lived was still wood. The most

likely competition level attributable to this hominin species is the second: A. kadabba

most probably lived in multi male social and breeding groups, as presentPan species do.

In subsequent Hominini, such as Ardipithecus ramidus (4.5 Mya),Australopithecus

anamensis (4.2 4 Mya), and Australopithecus afarensis (4 2.5 Mya), we may note

improvements in bipedalism and increase in sexual dimorphism.A. afarensis lived mostly

in savanna.


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Primate models of ancient hominin behaviors.

Reconstructing hominin evolution and social behavior, some scholars (as De Waal

2000), privileging genetic proximity, have chosen chimps as a species model; others,

giving more consideration to environmental influences, have chosen baboon species. Both

of these approaches have their strengths, but neither alone is a complete model for

Hominins, who must be studied as Primates that, genetically and morphologically chimp-

like, underwent an environmental selective pressure that might give them behavioral

baboon-like traits, as we know that similar ecological pressures produce similar

adaptations even in genetically different animals (convergent evolution) (e.g., see C. Jolly

2001).

As summarized by McFarland (1985, pp. 159-60), comparative studies have shown

that in harsh environments baboon troops are dominated by a single male, whereas in rich

environments the troops are multi-male.Papio hamadryas and Theropithecus gelada are

typically SM, whilePapio cynocephalus lives in rich environments and has typical multi

male troops. Papio anubis and P. ursinus (Chackma baboons) live in intermediate

environments. They have multi-male troops and dominant males have privileged access to

females. Often some dominant males form a central hierarchy and cooperate in

maintaining their social position against rivals, in protecting mothers and infants and in

defense against predators. Male anubis baboons have a smaller but evident cape, and

show a marked sexual dimorphism in body and canine teeth sizes. Each male hamadryasbaboon that possess an harem of females does not try to mate with a female of another

harem, while male anubis baboons try. From this and other behavioral differences, it

follows that hamadryas males exhibit affiliative and mutually supportive behaviors in a

variety of social contexts in which anubis males tend to be indifferent or hostile to each

other (Kaplan et al. 1999, p. 518). The neurobiological basis of these different behaviors

mostly lie in the serotonergic systems activity, that is lower in anubis than in hamadryas

males, as shown by observations carried out in anubis and anubis-hamadryas hybrid

males (Kaplan et al. 1999). It follows that, within the fourth level, hamadryas baboons are

less competitive than anubis baboons.

As stated by Plavcan and van Schalk, increasing sexual dimorphism in both canine

tooth size and body weight is strongly correlated with increasing competition level

(1997, p. 353). Such correlation allows us to assess competition level from sexual

dimorphism, and vice-versa: we may control this statement in extant species and infer it

for fossil species.

As it lived in harsh environment, we may reasonable suppose that A. afarensis,

which showed a marked body size sexual dimorphism, underwent a selective pressure that

gave baboon-like its behavior and social organization. According to the correlation

principle, we may chosePapio hamadryas orTheropithecus gelada as species that better


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may give us a model ofA. afarensis male behavior (high male male competition) and

social/breeding organization (SM breeding groups that daily come together to form large

groups). So the most likely competition level attributable to A. afarensis, and to the

precedent speciesA. anamensis, which appears to have been very dimorphic too (Ward et

a. 2001), is the fourth one. As noticed by Flinn et al. (2005, p. 26), Australopithecus

body mass dimorphism suggests that these early hominins were polygynous, as

significant mass dimorphism is not associated with monogamy in any extant primate

(Plavcan 2001). So, we may likely suppose thatA. afarensis had an SM breeding system

and an MM social system.

Sexual selection in hamadryas and gelada baboons favors males with large hair

capes: in harsh environment, males that seem to be bigger are more fit than males actually

larger (that are more expensive in nutrition and easilier victims for predators).

According to an hypothesis that has had Lovejoy among its first author (1980), it

might have been that, in a hominin SM breeding system group (likely belonging to A.

afarensis), it were born by chance a female having a concealed ovulation (i. e. without

estrus or sexual swellings and perhaps with a little masculine appearance, having a little

hair cape). In this case, the dominant male might have no close watch on her, and she

could more easily mate with a subordinate, and so less dimorphic, male. From such mates

it could be born both sons having little dimorphism and daughters having concealed

ovulation and probably a continuous sexual receptiveness.

These modifications very probably gave origin to a new species: Australopithecusgarhi is the fossil hominin most likely depict it. Male individuals of such a new species,

being less dimorphic and less competitive each other, could easily co-operate in defense

against predators and for food gaining. Moreover, ifA. afarensis males behaved asPapio

hamadryas males do at present, they might exhibit supportive behaviors in various social

contexts: this condition might be a pre-adaptive feature for more supportive behaviors in

A. garhi. It seems thatA. garhi was gatherer and scavenger, rather than hunter, because its

body was small and its legs were short.

Fossils of the subsequent genus Homo are characterized by low body size

dimorphism (competition levels 1 or 2), and absence of canine tooth size dimorphism,

which may imply breeding and social systems unique among primates (Ruff 2002).

Concealed ovulation and female continuous sexual receptivity formed two behavioral

selective factors because of males that insisted in mating with the same female gained

more reproductive success compared with males that tried to mate with all the females,

risking impregnating no one. Such a situation lead to form some adaptations supporting

long-term mating relationships and pair bonds, towards the success of monogamy in a

primate species in which, owing to its basic genetic inheritance, both males and females

were polygamous. Because of this complex interactions between towards monogamy


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adaptations and basic polygamous inheritance, we have chosen to term pseudo-Mo

the human breeding system from early Homo to hunter-gatherer Homo sapiens.

Subsequently, depending on environmental and cultural circumstances,Homo sapiens has

produced various kind of marital systems: in some there has been a reappearance, at least

in part, of an SM breeding system, with lawful or tolerated polygyny.

As regards environmental adaptations, according to Bramble and Lieberman (2004,

p. 345), endurance running, defined as running many kilometers over extended time

periods using aerobic metabolism ... is unique to humans among primates. Fossil data

suggest that this capability evolved in Homo habilis/rudolfensis for scavenging, and

subsequently in Homo ergaster/erectus for hunting. Endurance running, as remarked by

Bramble and Lieberman (2004, p.351), may have made possible a diet rich in fats and

proteins thought to account for the unique human combination of large bodies, small guts,

big brains and small teeth (see also Fialkowski 1986, 1987; Aiello & Wheleer 1995). Fig

VII. 1 shows fossil species, which are thought to be inside the human phylogenetic tree,

disposed according to their estimates of male-male competition levels. Scheme VII. 1

correlates the human evolution with breeding systems.

As regards social organization, combining data from body dimorphism, ecological

environment and stone tools, there is a general consensus that humans lived as hunter -

gatherers until a few thousands of years ago (that is, until the rising of agriculture, insome regions before, in other after, in other never), and that these social groups were

egalitarian as regards the distribution of resources and reproduction, that is they had MM

social system and pseudo-Mo breeding system.

VIII. The Immense Power Being as a projection of primates group chief:

Freuds and Morris hypotheses and criticism.

Since religious displays are characterized by submission to a dominant individual,

they may be the expression of an SM social system which has its neurological

background in the hierarchy operator of the R-complex, as described in III. On the

other hand, according to evolutionary psychology principles, a dominant individual may

not be conceptualized by a brain which is not prepared to conceive individual relations as

hierarchic relations. Therefore, the Immense Power Being concept must have been the

result of the projection of the image of a groups dominant individual in a superhuman

world: an example of such a model concerning the origin of religion is found in Freuds

Totem und Taboo (1912/13).

In this work, which aims to explain the origins of totemism and exogamy, rather than


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religion, Freud utilized the concept of the primitive horde hypothesized by Darwin in

The Descent of Man (1871), and the concept of the sacramental sacrifice of the totemic

animal described by W. R. Smith in Lectures on the Religion of Semites (1889).

According to Freud, in the primitive horde the father forbade his sons to mate with their

sisters, that he kept to himself: one day, the excluded brothers came together, and killed

and devoured their father, putting an end to the paternal horde. Eating him, they fulfilled a

sort of identification with him, and each of them took possession of a part of his power.

But afterward, as Freud hypothesized inferring by means of psychoanalysis, they felt

remorse for their action, and, as dead, the father became more powerful than he was as

live: his sons, owing to the posthumous obedience, inferred from psychoanalysis,

prohibited the killing of fathers substitute, the totem, and mating with their sisters (from

which the origin of exogamy).

In order to explain the persistence of totemism and exogamy in subsequent human

societies, Freud assumed memories, that are acquired and individual characters, as

genetically hereditary characters, while geneticists were showing acquired characters

were not. For that reason, now we may consider Freuds tale only as a myth regarding the

passage from SMhominin societies topseudo-Mo ones.

In The Naked Ape (1967; 1994, p. 121-122), D. Morris has proposed a sort of

biological updating of the Freudian hypothesis. He has wrote that before human ancestors

evolved into cooperative hunters they lived in social groups dominated by a single male.But with the growth of the cooperative spirit so vital for successful group hunting, the

application of the dominant individuals authority had to be severely limited if he was to

retain the active, as opposed to passive, loyalty of the other group members. They had to

want to help him instead of simply fear him. He had to become more one of them. The

old-style monkey tyrant had to go, and in his place there arose a more tolerant, more

cooperative naked ape leader. This change nevertheless left a gap. From our ancient

background there remained a need for an all-powerful figure who could keep the group

under control, and the vacancy was filled by the invention of a god. The influence of the

invented god-figure could then operate as a force additional to the now more restricted

influence of the group leader.

We are in agreement with Morris about the basic point that the all-powerful being

is a projection of the ancient old-style monkey tyrant, but Morris fast reconstruction

presents some points that need explanations, so that it must be regarded as a further

research stimulating model rather than a complete theory. Let us discuss two of this

points:

1) Morris does not state precisely the period of the human evolution in which the

old-style tyrant was eliminated and the god-figure was invented: in his reconstruction

these two events are regarded as or almost contemporary. But:


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a) we may reasonably assert that the ability of thinking abstract, superhuman and

invisible beings was achieved only by hominins endowed with a large brain, presumably

afterHomo sapiens speciation.

b) We know, from the reconstruction of hominin social behavior based on fossil data

dimorphism, and above reported, that the old-style tyrant was replaced by more

cooperative leaders about two million of years ago.

Therefore, if Morris postulated invention of god happened afterHomo sapiens

speciation, his reconstruction does not hold in due consideration the very long time

passed from the old-style tyrant cessation; vice versa, if it happened immediately after

this cessation, it cannot be considered reasonable because the brains of two millions years

ago hominins could not think superhuman and invisible beings.

2) A gap is not a stimulus, but the absence of a stimulus. It is necessary a stimulus

that, as it is inexplicable, suggests a gap of power that must be filled.

Returning to our reconstruction, from the evolution of social behavior we have

depicted, it logically descents that, in groups of lacking dimorphism Hominini (especially

from earlyHomo), there were no individual who, as dominant male in SM social groups,

might act as a concrete example of an Immense Power Being. In other words we can

reject the possibility that the divine being idea might have been originated by a projection

of a dominant male actually living in those groups.

How did it happen, therefore, that among human beings with a documented low

male-male competition social system we can find a projection in the super-human world

of a being with immense power, that should have to be associated with a high male-male

competition social system, supported by a strong hierarchy operators activity?

Although inhibited by the Limbic System, the human brain R-complex preserved

(and still preserves) structures and hierarchy forming functions which give rise to

conceive powerful leaders. The neocortical elaboration of the concept of an Immense

Powerful Being can only be created, according to the triune brain model, after a proposal

of the R-complex to the Neocortex. Consequently we can deduce that at some time in the

course of human evolution such a nervous structure was set free by the inhibitory action

of the Limbic System, presumably as a consequence of a strong external stimulus which,

causing a psychic trauma, weakened the inhibitory action of the Limbic System.


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IX. Towards a Neurobiological and Evolutionary Psychology Explanation:

a) The Traumatic and Triggering Stimulus.

We could presume that this traumatic stimulus consisted in the acquisition of the

awareness of own mortality. Indeed, as the human brain, presumably in Homo sapiens,

achieved the complexity that allowed it to think over it happened in surrounding

environment, human beings realized that whereas animals died because another animal

killed them, human beings could die even if no animal killed them: For example, at a

certain point of his life, with no apparent cause, an human being felt ill, also pain, and

died. This event, in various ways, occurred always: Every human being had not a

predators (or accidents) victim, invariably died anyway.

The abstractive operator, from every single death event, inferred that every human

being had to die, i. e. it allowed human beings to be aware of their own mortality.

Thanks to the linguistic operator, this awareness of death became collective: Even

human beings who had not arrived alone at the concept of the universality of death came

to know of it by other humans.

We can presume this awareness was very shocking.

Most scholars agree that human are, and always were, troubled by their own

mortality, and some of them had explained many cultural human features as derived from

this awareness (Terror Management Theory: See, for example, Greenberg et al. 1997, or

Salzman 2001). Moreover, as Hinde has noticed (1999, p. 59), among present-dayhumans, even if most people profess to accept the prospect of death, indirect methods

indicate that unconscious fear is widespread (Beit- Hallahmi and Argyle 1997; Hood et al.

1996).

Ethnological research of the past two centuries has shown that preliterate people do

not think death as a natural datum: On the contrary, all the narratives on the origin and

cause of death have shown in evidence, without exceptions, the unnaturalness of death

(Widengren 1969).

So we may infer thatHomo sapiens is the only animal who knows he is mortal, and

that he does not immediately recognize this fact as a natural datum: he may think so by

means of a rational effort.Homo sapiens, as historical and ethnographic data show, rather

and immediately feels that death is a violence he has to suffer: all the more reason it could

have been considered so by the first Homo sapiens who were conscious of death. We

cannot know when this awareness took place.

McBrearty & Brooks, in their very expansive review of the origin of modern human

behavior (2000), refer (p. 519) that earliest evidence for burial among H. sapiens is

found in the Levant at the site of Qafzeh, that these are dated to ca. 120, - 90,000 years


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ago and that at least one may be associated with grave goods.

b) A scheme of the Triggered Psychic/Neurobiological Mechanism.

On the basis of our neurobiological knowledge, we can try to reconstruct the psychic

mechanism triggered by first death awareness in ancient humans, roughly locating the

involved brain structures using the triune model, as follows and as it is depicted in fig. IX.

1.

1) Homo sapiens perceived death.

2) The Neocortex realized the awareness that all human beings had to die, and in the

same time death was felt as a violence.

3) Neocortical causal operator, as it spontaneously tends to impart a sense of

causality on all the events (the causal imperative orneed of explanation), tried to

find the cause of the mortal violence exerted over humans. But it obviously failed

in finding an empirical cause.

4) The Limbic System received the awareness of death and the anxiety derived from

the lack of any empirical explanation, and, as it was shocked by them, turned

them into a distressing stimulus affecting the Neocortex and R-complex; at the

same time its inhibitory action on the R-complex decreased.

5) According to R-complex way of thinking (due to its behavioral operators),violence must be performed by a dominant individual. To a similar conclusion

ancient Homo sapiens R-complex had unconsciously to come owing to its

internal neuronal circuits linking cognitive operators of the caudate nucleus (the

thinking part of the R-complex and main site of the pseudo-causal operator)

with behavioral operators as the hierarchic one lying in the pallidum.

6) The result of such a reptilian elaboration was projected to Neocortex, where it

became conscious. The Neocortical causal operator, as no other active and

empirical cause he might find, had to recognize in the reptilian concept of a

dominant individual the agent of the mortal violence inflicted on humanity. Such

a recognition was not difficult to causal operator, because, as we have said above

( III), it includes an agent-detection device. Therefore:

7) The Neocortex formulated the Immense Powerful Being concept.

8) However it was still an indefinite concept. The neocortical association areas, in

relation to the ecological, cultural and social environments (9 a), and with more

or less relevant contributions by the caudate nucleus (thank to the reverberating

circuit Neocortex Associative Striatal Regions Neocortex etc., as we have

described in III), developed various systems of myths (9 b) in order to explain

mankind-god relations (first the reason of mortal violence inflicted to humans)


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and systems of rites allowing the establishment of some kind of communication

between humans and the Powerful Being(s). Inside the neocortical association

areas that tried to explain the reason of mortal violence inflicted by the Immense

Powerful Being to the humans, an important role might be performed by the

metacognition or theory of mind operator.

Finally, but it is fundamental, it must be emphasized that every system of belief

may be felt as true only if the Limbic Systems existential operator (9c) gives it a

sense of reality. In other words, in the presence of equivalent fantastic tales

(regards neocortical judgment) the existential operator chooses which are fancy

products and which are sacred, or revealed (and so absolutely true), tales.

Thanks to the activities of above mentioned operators, we may agree with Geertz

characterization of religion, as well as a totalitarian ideology, as a system of symbols

which acts to establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in

humans by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence and clothing these

conceptions with such an aura of factuality that the moods and motivations seem uniquely

realistic (Geertz 1966). Howev

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