Foraging societies’ gods rarely enforce moral rules that humans themselves uphold
Evidence
In fact, they varied in size and social complexity. Nevertheless, the point remains that in the smallest-scale foraging societies, many gods and spirits have limited or little concern for human moral behavior. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 815
Categorization
- XREF: Grounds the Big God thesis in contrasting ethnographic evidence; relevant to testing whether the omniscient-moralizing-god mechanism is universal or culturally specific. — connects to: Hunter-gatherer gods are weak, morally indifferent, and self-interested; Small transparent groups need no moralizing gods to sustain cooperation — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 409; Water-scarce societies tend to develop moralizing gods (+4 more)
- corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 815
Broader Connections
- Hunter-gatherer gods lacked wide moral concern and omniscience
#corroborates(0.92) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 415 - Water-scarce societies tend to develop moralizing gods
#contradicts(0.90) - Moralizing gods are a minority across documented world cultures
#corroborates(0.85) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 416 - Agricultural societies favor doctrinal rituals and moralistic Big Gods
#qualifies(0.75) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 427 - Foragers rarely punish; they resolve disputes by avoiding the wrongdoer.
#exemplifies(0.75) — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality, 85