4 Ancestor Worship
Ancestor worship. The ancestors in question are not always direct or literal ancestors, and it’s not always some elaborate form of worship. Rather, it is the communicated acceptance of the supernatural claim that the living can influence the dead and the dead can influence the living (Steadman and Palmer 2007). And, like religious behavior itself, ancestor worship is seemingly a human universal. Any time you drive past a cemetery and people’s graves are decorated with flowers or someone kneels at their bedside to pray to God, ancestor worship is occurring.
If you recall from the “Green Beard” video in the last section introduction, “Green Beard” altruism is an extremely adaptive form of cooperation. But, it relies on there being an outwardly identifiable phenotypic trait in order for organisms with “green beards” to be able to identify others with “green beards”. Functionally, ancestor worship is one cultural or behavioral way for “green beards” to identify other “green beards.” One does not need to rely on their genetic code to physically grow a green beard when they can strap on a cultural green beard.
The most clear example of ancestor worship being a form of “Green Beard” altruism can be seen in most world religions. Many members of certain world religions communicate their acceptance of the supernatural claim that “God the Father” created all things, making God everybody’s ultimate ancestor. Whenever someone attends church, wears a cross necklace, or says “Amen” after a prayer, they are strapping on a cultural “child of God” green beard and signaling to those around them their willingness to be selectively altruistic towards them; their willingness to be cooperation partners. Just strapping on the green beard is not enough, however. Members are required to behave a certain way, otherwise the others will not be selectively altruistic towards them.
This framework provides a possible explanation for the thousands of Christian denominations around the world. For example, for some reason or another, a young Joseph Smith wasn’t happy with the dominant Christian denominations in New York in the 1800’s. Because of this, he made new supernatural claims about “God the Father,” such as claiming that God was once a man. Once a slightly different, but still new, “God the Father” was culturally created, people could strap on that new “Green Beard” (potentially at the cost of their old one, but not always) and acquire a whole new set of cooperation partners in hopes of it leading to greater prosperity for themselves and their families. The same could likely be said of many of the other splits in Christianity seen throughout history.
This strategy of easily being able to identify others with whom one can engage in selective altruism, likely contributed to ancestor worship being a global universal in humans.
Backyard Examples of Ancestor Worship
Praying to one’s ultimate ancestor (God the creator in many world religions).
Using a Ouija board to contact the spirits of the dead.
Burying someone with objects.
Not speaking ill of the dead.
Spreading the ashes of a loved one.
Mitchell’s Musings:
Being as agnostic as anyone can be, I don’t accept the supernatural claim that the living can influence the dead and the dead can influence the living, but I’ve felt drawn to speak to the remains of dead loved ones, even when nobody else is around and I would undoubtedly feel like I wasn’t alone walking through a graveyard in the middle of the night. I consider this to be anecdotal evidence of the universality of, and the possibly innate human drive to participate in, ancestor worship.