Religious worship may have driven the agricultural revolution rather than resulting from it.

Evidence

If we plot the influence of egalitarian mutualism on human social organization throughout history, we obtain a peculiar U-shaped curve (Boehm 1999). Starting approximately from 10,000 BC, egalitarian nomadic societies were progressively displaced by sedentary agriculturalists. Agriculture co-evolved with a new social organization based on caste systems, centralized power, and monopoly of violence – in short, the birth of the state (Dubreuil 2010a). This step is not inconsistent with Baumard et al.’s explanatory framework: The new states capitalized on intensive production and food storage. Interestingly, they emerged in highly fertile areas surrounded by arid land, which reduced mobility and the range of outside options. The necessity to defend fertile land and stored food encouraged the creation of a warrior class, which in turn facilitated the maintenance of social order. Demographic growth and low mobility, moreover, created massive coordination problems that were best solved by centralized monarchies. — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality, 447 (#contradicts, via linked claim)

Although both types of rituals can co-occur in a group, chances are that if one type is more prevalent, the other is less common. Doctrinal rituals are the stuff of organized religion. They are associated with greater reliance on agriculture, which in turn demands greater levels of ingroup cooperation. These agricultural societies are the ones that were historically shaped by prosocial religious groups. In contrast, rare but emotionally arousing imagistic rituals tended to occur in smaller-scale groups that are less likely to depend on agriculture, and much less likely to be associated with moralistic Big Gods. It’s not that the imagistic mode is absent from organized religion. It does occur and can galvanize and renew faith and commitment. However, the imagistic mode is less predictable, and as a result, when it occurs in prosocial religions, it is actively managed by religious authorities and tolerated only to the extent that it doesn’t challenge the central dogma or the group’s interests. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 427 (#complicates, via linked claim)

The habit of seeing something divine in the crops that sustain us, formed all over the world around 10,000 years ago, is still stubbornly alive. — Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects, 182 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Agricultural societies favor doctrinal rituals and moralistic Big Gods — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 427; Cities may have preceded and enabled agriculture, not the reverse; Capitalism emerged ideologically through intensified spiritualization rather than secularization (+9 more)

Related

• Sedentary agriculture drove the shift from egalitarian mutiualism to state hierarchy. (similarity 0.83)
• Organized religion may have preceded agriculture rather than followed it (similarity 0.82)
• Elaborate rituals and monuments co-emerge with larger complex societies (similarity 0.81)
• Agricultural societies favor doctrinal rituals and moralistic Big Gods (similarity 0.81)
• Agricultural societies correlate with doctrinal rituals; small foraging groups use imagistic ones (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Sedentary agriculture drove the shift from egalitarian mutiualism to state hierarchy. #contradicts (0.90) — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality, 447
• Agricultural societies favor doctrinal rituals and moralistic Big Gods #complicates (0.85) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 427
• Food’s divine association has persisted since early agriculture. #corroborates (0.85) — Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 Objects, 182
• Cities may have preceded and enabled agriculture, not the reverse #complicates (0.82)
• Mode of production can assign dominance to politics or religion in different epochs #expands (0.80)
• Chinese civilization may have scaled up through secular alternatives to religion #complicates (0.78)
• Capitalism emerged ideologically through intensified spiritualization rather than secularization #complicates (0.75)
• The religion-morality link is a recent cultural invention, not an ancient universal #complicates (0.75)
• Enlightenment reason reshaped religious providence rather than displacing it #complicates (0.73) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 122
• Religion can override political rights and material gains when believers hold it inviolable #complicates (0.72)
• Religious political ascendance in the late twentieth century was a global, not Muslim-specific, phenomenon #complicates (0.72) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 314
• English agrarian capitalism disciplined church, monarchy, and masses in turn #complicates (0.70)