Prosocial religions extend kinship language and psychology to co-religionists

Evidence

Finally, it has been observed that members of prosocial religious groups treat each other as fictive kin, to use a term popularized by evolutionary scientist Randolph Nesse. Thus, “Among the Hebrews and Phoenicians … the worshipper is called brother (that is, kinsman or sister of the god).” Christians and Muslims also describe themselves as belonging to a brotherhood, a common term that often applies today to the global fraternity of Islam (ikhwan). — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 384

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines fictive kinship as the extension of brother/sister terminology to religious co-members — a precise concept the reader’s solidarity-disruption argument depends on.
• XREF: Fictive kinship across religions pairs with Baumard’s partner-choice mechanism: treating co-religionists as kin signals cooperative intent within the group. — connects to: Radical religious sects extended egalitarian cosmology to family and sexual relations — Carolyn Merchant, The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology,…, 530; Potawatomi extends family kinship grammar to the whole living world — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 196