Ritual signaling as an adaptation strategy of marginalized groups: A case study from Mauritius.
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| Year of publication | 2018 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | The fear of the unknown is deeply rooted in humans - a result of millions of years of evolution by natural selection. Distrusting others, especially strangers, is the modus operandi of our social brain. Even though group boundaries and membership are a matter of collective agreement, and the content of our biases varies temporally, spatially and culturally, the structural properties of the human mind nevertheless limit the possible variation. The resulting social heuristics lies at the core of countless conflicts and misunderstandings that the members of our species engage in on a daily basis. Social projects ignoring, or suppressing cultural differences threaten individual and collective identity, values and norms, and reshape them without people's consent. In contrast, projects that promote diversity blindly run the risk of societal fragmentation and loosening of cohesion. A possible solution to these challenges lies in shared experience and collective ritual action - both are capable of transcending and transforming the group boundaries and identity categories temporarily, without threatening the existing status quo. They can serve as communication devices that will build bridges of understanding, shaping attitudes, knowledge, and relationships and replacing identity collision with concord, as our research in Mauritius demonstrates. |
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