Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
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Theme issue 'Ritual renaissance: new insights into the most human of behaviours' compiled and edited by Cristine H. Legare and Mark G. Nielsen

Convergent developments across social scientific disciplines provide evidence that rituals are a psychologically prepared, culturally inherited, behavioural trademark of our species. Rituals are socially-stipulated, conventional practices that are opaque from the perspective of physical causality. The diversity of ritual practices is dramatic and ranges from elaborate religious ceremonies, to initiation rites, to simple greetings. It ranges from the life threatening to the benign. Yet our understanding of this core human trait remains limited.

This special issue integrates research from anthropology, archaeology, biology, primatology, cognitive science, psychology, religious studies, and demography to build an interdisciplinary account of ritual. The objective of this special issue is to contribute to an integrative explanation of ritual by addressing Tinbergen’s four key questions. These include answering ultimate questions about the (1) phylogeny of ritual and (2) adaptive functions of ritual. These also include answering proximate questions about the (3) mechanisms (causation) and (4) ontogeny (development) of ritual. The intersection of these four complementary lines of inquiry yields new avenues for theory and research on the co-evolution of cognition and culture.

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INTRODUCTION

Introduction
Ritual explained: interdisciplinary answers to Tinbergen's four questions
Published:29 June 2020Article ID:20190419

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0419

ARTICLES

Review articles
On the evolution of baboon greeting rituals
Published:29 June 2020Article ID:20190420

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0420

Research articles
Capuchin monkey rituals: an interdisciplinary study of form and function
Published:29 June 2020Article ID:20190422

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0422

Review articles
Spontaneous (minimal) ritual in non-human great apes?
Published:29 June 2020Article ID:20190423

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0423

Research articles
Specialization in the vicarious learning of novel arbitrary sequences in humans but not orangutans
Published:29 June 2020Article ID:20190442

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0442

Review articles
Homo neanderthalensis and the evolutionary origins of ritual in Homo sapiens
Published:29 June 2020Article ID:20190424

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0424

Research articles
Ingredients of ‘rituals’ and their cognitive underpinnings
Published:29 June 2020Article ID:20190439

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0439

Review articles
Ritual as resource management
Published:29 June 2020Article ID:20190429

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0429

Research articles
The last Talmudic demon? The role of ritual in cultural transmission
Published:29 June 2020Article ID:20190425

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0425

Research articles
Church attendance and alloparenting: an analysis of fertility, social support and child development among English mothers
Published:29 June 2020Article ID:20190428

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0428

Research articles
Ritual morphospace revisited: the form, function and factor structure of ritual practice
Published:29 June 2020Article ID:20190436

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0436

Research articles
The role of ritual behaviour in anxiety reduction: an investigation of Marathi religious practices in Mauritius
Published:29 June 2020Article ID:20190431

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0431

Research articles
Time investments in rituals are associated with social bonding, affect and subjective health: a longitudinal study of Diwali in two Indian communities
Published:29 June 2020Article ID:20190430

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0430

Research articles
The cultural evolutionary trade-off of ritualistic synchrony
Published:29 June 2020Article ID:20190432

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0432

Research articles
Perinatal risk and the cultural ecology of health in Bihar, India
Published:29 June 2020Article ID:20190433

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0433

Review articles
Ritual and the origins of first impressions
Published:29 June 2020Article ID:20190435

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0435

Research articles
Watch me, watch you: ritual participation increases in-group displays and out-group monitoring in children
Published:29 June 2020Article ID:20190437

https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0437