Can Religion Drive Economic Complexification in Early Human Societies? A Cross-Cultural Analysis of North American Archaeological Data

Varied niche construction approaches to religion in early human societies suggest religious specialization and economic complexification share a co-evolutionary relationship. However, limited analyses exist in the archaeological domain to test this assumption at a cross-cultural scale. Should religion and religious morphology be seen as a driver of early economic complexification, or only its product? To investigate the relationship of social complexity and religious specialization in early human societies, the following paper presents findings from a cross-cultural analysis of 21 North American indigenous archaeological traditions with data hosted on eHRAF: Archaeology. Results provide mixed support for an approach to religion as a driver of economic complexification, with religious control of food storage and feasting important mediators. These results are interpreted in light of recent work which emphasizes food storage as a basic economic element required for the development of religious specialization, as well as Hayden’s paleo-political ecology (PPE) model, a classic theory in North American archaeology on the relationship between food storage, religion, feasting, and social complexification. Discussion additionally focuses on interactions between niche construction approaches which emphasize religion’s adaptive benefits and the PPE model, which focuses religion’s capacity to stabilize social inequality.