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22Trance, Dissociation, and Shamanism: A Cross-Cultural ModelJournal of Cognition and Culture 18 (5): 508-536. 2018.Religious practices centered on controlled trance states, such as Siberian shamanism or North African zar, are ubiquitous, yet their characteristics vary. In particular, cross-cultural research finds that female-dominated spirit possession cults are common in stratified societies, whereas male-dominated shamanism predominates in structurally flatter cultures. Here, we present an agent-based model that explores factors, including social stratification and psychological dissociation, that may part…Read more
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18Multiple Axialities: A Computational Model of the Axial AgeJournal of Cognition and Culture 18 (5): 537-564. 2018.Debates over the causes and consequences of the “Axial Age” – and its relevance for understanding and explaining “modernity” – continue to rage within and across a wide variety of academic disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, archaeology, history, social theory, and cognitive science. We present a computational model that synthesizes three leading theories about the emergence of axial civilizations. Although these theories are often treated as competitors, our computational model show…Read more
Cambridge, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland