Evolutionary Origin of Religions and Religious Evolution: Religious Neurosociology

The paper proposes that the evolutionary origin of religions is based on theory of mind as the product of interdependent division of labor between the forest specialist group (women and small children) and the woodland specialist group (men) in early hominins who lived in the mixed forest-woodland habitat. To complement each other’s work without interfering each other’s work, one specialist group had to recognize (imagine) that the other specialist group existed to think for themselves and to do different works. The result was theory of mind which is to recognize (imagine) that the others exist to think for themselves. (The forest-woodland groups became the hunter-gatherer groups for the Homo species in the savanna habitat.) Under existential pressure, hominins invented imaginary specialists as imaginary agents who existed to think for themselves and to do different works in imaginary division of labor to enhance survival chance. The result was religion with imaginary behaviors. Therefore, religion is defined as a set of beliefs and behaviors based on theory of mind that produces a shared imagination to enhance survival chance under existential pressure. This paper proposes that the religious evolution consists of the premodern imaginative religion for local society habitat starting from bipedalism, the modern rational imaginative religion for regional society habitat starting from the Axial Age, and the postmodern diverse rational imaginative religion for global society habitat starting from the Information Revolution. In conclusion, the religious brain is the imaginative brain, and the religious social behaviors are imaginary social behaviors. The religious evolution is the evolution of human imagination to enhance survival chance under existential pressure, such as the religious reinforcement of social bonds to enhance the survival chance of social group and the religious relief of stress and anxiety to enhance the survival chance of individuals.

The New Knowledge System Regarding the Idea of Community and Power-Structures of Society:The Bengali Narrative Ballads of Maimansingha Gitika

Circulation and reception of various national literatures,particularly significant texts and literary traditions in minority languages such as Bengali,are often neglected by the scholarly community and literary institutions.This creates an incomplete view of world literature,which should encompass the wholeness or totality of literature from different geographical locations.In an effort to minimize this gap,this research article explores the popular collection of Bengali narrative ballads,Maimansingha Gitika,compiled by Dineshchandra Sen.Most of the collected narrative ballads were composed between the 16th and early 18th century,yet this prime text is largely unavailable to readers and unobtainable to experts in politico-cultural and historical contexts.Using the concept of community and new historicism,this article analyzes two narrative ballads from Maimansingha Gitika,offering critical insights into the power structures of society and the new knowledge systems surrounding the concept of community.Through this analysis,the article highlights the importance of including prime texts in different national languages to inform the scholarly community about the rich literary traditions and relationality of knowledge extracted from minority languages to contemporary Euro-American knowledge structures.