Rituals and Human Capacities for Cooperation

Abstract

Foreword | Matt Rossano uses pre-historical and paleo-anthropological data on past primate societies and he argues using results and theories from primatology, ethology and psychology on contemporary individuals, populations and societies. He uses these insights in an argument from the viewpoint of an evolutionary informed psychology. My comment argues from a discipline primarily engaged with the study of contemporary human communities and societies. Cultural anthropology is primarily interested in collectives and less in individuals. Since this discipline is far removed from most of the data and some of the theoretical armaments used by Rossano, the comments may be regarded as coming from the position of an outsider to some degree. On the other hand cultural anthropology is quite close to one of the main methodological approaches used in this article. Cultural anthropologists study human groups in a naturalistic way. Anthropological fieldwork tries to capture human social interactions in an empiricist, real-life, real-time and real-space manner.