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James W. Dow

Oakland University, Sociology and Anthropology, Emeritus

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I am currently Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. My career started out with a BS degree in Mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After working for several years in applied mathematics related mostly to atomic warfare, I became interested in the irrational sometimes destructive aspects of human behavior. I left the weapons business to pursue a doctorate in anthropology, which I received in 1973 from Brandeis University. I have done cultural anthropological field research in the Caribbean and Mexico. I have worked extensively on economic and religious systems. My current focus is on the evolution of religion with an emphasis on is biological origins. Many additional publications are listed at.

https://files.oakland.edu/users/dow/web/
Contact me at [email protected]

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Papers by James W. Dow

Machiavellian Genes, Social Selection, and the Evolution of Religious Behavior

This article offers a theoretical solution to the problem of how a capacity for irrational religi... more This article offers a theoretical solution to the problem of how a capacity for irrational religious imagery can evolve naturally in a social species. It discusses the various theories that have arisen during the search for the evolutionary origins of religion. Then, it discusses evolution as gene cooperation. It explains why the earth is covered with a beautifully complex systems of plants and animals instead of a simple slime of RNA. The key to understanding this evolution of complexity is the mechanism by which social selection creates coalitions of genes that exist in more than one individual. The Darwinian competitive model is compared to the cooperative model that underlies it The article uses mathematical coalitional game theory to explain how this works.

Religion and Science: Two Peas in a Pod or Fruits of Different Vines?

Woman Capture as a Motivation for Warfare: A Comparative Analysis of Intracultural Variation and a Critique of the "Male Supremacist Complex

In Rethinking Adaptation: Biological and Cultural Models . Rada Dyson-Hudson and Michael A. Little, eds. , 1983

On the Muddled Concept of Corporation in Anthropology

American Anthropologist Vol. 75, No. 3, Pp. 904-908, 1973

Universal Aspects of Symbolic Healing: A Theoretical Synthesis

In this article, I propose that symbolic healing has a universal structure in which the healer he... more In this article, I propose that symbolic healing has a universal structure in which the healer helps the patient particularize a general cultural mythic world and manipulate healing symbols in it. Problems currently existing in the explanation of symbolic healing are examined. The relationship between Western psychotherapy and magical healing is explained, the function of shamanic ecstasy is discussed, and symbolic healing is explained in terms of a theory of living systems.

Ritual Prestation, Intermediate-Level Social Organization, and Sierra Otomí Oratory Groups

Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture. Barbara A. Tenenbaum, Ed., 1996

Indians of Latin America

Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture, Volume 3. Barbara A. Tenenbaum, Ed., 1996

The Theology of Change: Evangelical Protestantism and the Collapse of Native Religion in a Peasant Area of Mexico

Chapter 7 in Explorations in Anthropology and Theology. Frank A. Salamone and Walter R. Adams, eds. , 1997

Astronomical Orientations at Teotihuacán: A Case Study in Astro-archaeology

American Antiquity, 1967

The streets of this Classic Period city were laid out in a grid pattern. The axes of this grid we... more The streets of this Classic Period city were laid out in a grid pattern. The axes of this grid were almost, but not exactly, perpendicular. There were a number of celestial bodies that in the period from A.D. 150 to A.D. 750 rose or set so as to mark the orientations of the streets. The Pleiades, Sirius, and the sun were the most probable orientation points. Two techniques which have been developed to test the more certain past existence of celestial references are described.

Coevolutionary Materialism

Studying Societies and Cultures: Marvin Harris's Cultural Materialism and Its Legacy, 2007

The thrust of Harris’s theoretical work was to discount idealism and to demystify the origins of ... more The thrust of Harris’s theoretical work was to discount idealism and to demystify the origins of culture.1 He was aligned with the neoevolutionists who wanted to develop a science of culture. However, the idea of cultural materialism itself is still a somewhat dogmatic belief without connections to other empirical sciences. Harris (1979:26–27) called it a “research strategy” rather than a theory. In other words, we are asked to believe that cultural materialism leads to better theories about the way that things work than alternative modes of explanation that can, at first contact, be equally satisfying. The most significant alternatives, for Harris, were the idealist theories that hold that human ideas, not material circumstances, cause culture change.

Demographic Factors Affecting Protestant Conversions in Three Mexican Villages

Holy Saints and Fiery Preachers: The Anthropology of Protestantism in Mexico and Central America, 2001

The Evolution of Knowledge Systems: Narrative Knowledge versus Scientific Knowledge

This paper discusses two types of knowledge that are generated by cultural anthropology, narrativ... more This paper discusses two types of knowledge that are generated by cultural anthropology, narrative knowledge and scientific knowledge. The argument of this article is that narrative knowledge an older form of knowledge that dates to the time when the brain was evolving its capacity for cultural communication, and that scientific knowledge is more recent and depends on writing and other more elaborate technologies for encoding cultural information outside of the human brain. The article explores the various ways in which narrative knowledge has been promoted in the cultural anthropology. It discusses the weaknesses and strengths of narrative knowledge. It proposes that narrative knowledge has a basic attractiveness because of the role that it played in the early history of the human species. Although this article is critical of narrative knowledge it does not take the same position as logical positivism which declares that true knowledge must be unambiguous. It proposes that narrative knowledge is a primitive, natural, form of knowledge, although its communication is rarely without ambiguity.

The Anthropologists in Avatar

Publlished in The Heroic Anthropologist Rides Again: The Depiction of the Anthropologist in Popular Culture. Frank A., 2012

On a far distant moon in the far future technological civilization has reached its final limits. ... more On a far distant moon in the far future technological civilization has reached its final limits. A race of hunter gatherers is facing the onslaught of human technology. Who is there to save them from the ghastly destruction of technological warfare? Why, who else but anthropologists. Well, at least they look and act like anthropologists. Perhaps they should be called na'viologists. for the Na'vi race has gone beyond humans to establish a closer contact with the forces of life. for that reason, the film writers could not use the word "anthropologist," or perhaps, it is too dangerous for Hollywood to recognize the actual moral and scientific stance of anthropologists in the real world.

Published in the Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology. D. Levinson and M. Ember, eds. New York: Henry Holt and Company., 1996

The Otomían and Purépechan Cultures of Central Mexico

Supplement to the Handbook of Middle American Indians: Volume 6: Ethnology, 2000

La Religión de los otomíes de la Sierra

A Scientific Definition of Religion

Anpere: Anthropological Perspectives on Religion, Feb 19, 2007

Religion is a collection of behavior that is only unified in our Western conception of it. It nee... more Religion is a collection of behavior that is only unified in our Western conception of it. It need not have a natural unity. There is no reason to assume, and good reason not to assume, that all religious behavior evolved together at the same time in response to a single shift in the environment. This article does not look at the religion as a unified entity and seek a definition of its essence. Instead, it looks at what science needs to know in order to discover how and why religion came into existence as a human behavior. What does science need to know about religion, or how should religion be defined so that science can look at it? A definition that refers to observable behavior is required. Then, a preliminary hypothesis to orient observations is proposed. I suggest a preliminary hypothesis consisting of three stages in the evolution of religion:(1) a cognizer of unobservable agents, (2) a sacred category classifier, and (3) a motivator for public sacrifice. Each one of these stages is a nucleus of modern anthropological theorizing. Although they all come together in the Western folk concept of religion, this article proposes that they are independent evolutionary complexes that should not be lumped together, but should be investigated as separate types of religious behavior

Apprentice Shaman

Published as Chapter 11 in Apprenticeship: From Theory to Method and Back Again. Michael W. Coy, ed. State University of New York Press. Pp. 199-209., 1989

Religión Tradicional de los Ñähñu de la Sierra

Los Pueblos Indígenas de Hidalgo: Atlas Etnorgráfico, 2012

Machiavellian Genes, Social Selection, and the Evolution of Religious Behavior

This article offers a theoretical solution to the problem of how a capacity for irrational religi... more This article offers a theoretical solution to the problem of how a capacity for irrational religious imagery can evolve naturally in a social species. It discusses the various theories that have arisen during the search for the evolutionary origins of religion. Then, it discusses evolution as gene cooperation. It explains why the earth is covered with a beautifully complex systems of plants and animals instead of a simple slime of RNA. The key to understanding this evolution of complexity is the mechanism by which social selection creates coalitions of genes that exist in more than one individual. The Darwinian competitive model is compared to the cooperative model that underlies it The article uses mathematical coalitional game theory to explain how this works.

Religion and Science: Two Peas in a Pod or Fruits of Different Vines?

Woman Capture as a Motivation for Warfare: A Comparative Analysis of Intracultural Variation and a Critique of the "Male Supremacist Complex

In Rethinking Adaptation: Biological and Cultural Models . Rada Dyson-Hudson and Michael A. Little, eds. , 1983

On the Muddled Concept of Corporation in Anthropology

American Anthropologist Vol. 75, No. 3, Pp. 904-908, 1973

Universal Aspects of Symbolic Healing: A Theoretical Synthesis

In this article, I propose that symbolic healing has a universal structure in which the healer he... more In this article, I propose that symbolic healing has a universal structure in which the healer helps the patient particularize a general cultural mythic world and manipulate healing symbols in it. Problems currently existing in the explanation of symbolic healing are examined. The relationship between Western psychotherapy and magical healing is explained, the function of shamanic ecstasy is discussed, and symbolic healing is explained in terms of a theory of living systems.

Ritual Prestation, Intermediate-Level Social Organization, and Sierra Otomí Oratory Groups

Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture. Barbara A. Tenenbaum, Ed., 1996

Indians of Latin America

Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture, Volume 3. Barbara A. Tenenbaum, Ed., 1996

The Theology of Change: Evangelical Protestantism and the Collapse of Native Religion in a Peasant Area of Mexico

Chapter 7 in Explorations in Anthropology and Theology. Frank A. Salamone and Walter R. Adams, eds. , 1997

Astronomical Orientations at Teotihuacán: A Case Study in Astro-archaeology

American Antiquity, 1967

The streets of this Classic Period city were laid out in a grid pattern. The axes of this grid we... more The streets of this Classic Period city were laid out in a grid pattern. The axes of this grid were almost, but not exactly, perpendicular. There were a number of celestial bodies that in the period from A.D. 150 to A.D. 750 rose or set so as to mark the orientations of the streets. The Pleiades, Sirius, and the sun were the most probable orientation points. Two techniques which have been developed to test the more certain past existence of celestial references are described.

Coevolutionary Materialism

Studying Societies and Cultures: Marvin Harris's Cultural Materialism and Its Legacy, 2007

The thrust of Harris’s theoretical work was to discount idealism and to demystify the origins of ... more The thrust of Harris’s theoretical work was to discount idealism and to demystify the origins of culture.1 He was aligned with the neoevolutionists who wanted to develop a science of culture. However, the idea of cultural materialism itself is still a somewhat dogmatic belief without connections to other empirical sciences. Harris (1979:26–27) called it a “research strategy” rather than a theory. In other words, we are asked to believe that cultural materialism leads to better theories about the way that things work than alternative modes of explanation that can, at first contact, be equally satisfying. The most significant alternatives, for Harris, were the idealist theories that hold that human ideas, not material circumstances, cause culture change.

Demographic Factors Affecting Protestant Conversions in Three Mexican Villages

Holy Saints and Fiery Preachers: The Anthropology of Protestantism in Mexico and Central America, 2001

The Evolution of Knowledge Systems: Narrative Knowledge versus Scientific Knowledge

This paper discusses two types of knowledge that are generated by cultural anthropology, narrativ... more This paper discusses two types of knowledge that are generated by cultural anthropology, narrative knowledge and scientific knowledge. The argument of this article is that narrative knowledge an older form of knowledge that dates to the time when the brain was evolving its capacity for cultural communication, and that scientific knowledge is more recent and depends on writing and other more elaborate technologies for encoding cultural information outside of the human brain. The article explores the various ways in which narrative knowledge has been promoted in the cultural anthropology. It discusses the weaknesses and strengths of narrative knowledge. It proposes that narrative knowledge has a basic attractiveness because of the role that it played in the early history of the human species. Although this article is critical of narrative knowledge it does not take the same position as logical positivism which declares that true knowledge must be unambiguous. It proposes that narrative knowledge is a primitive, natural, form of knowledge, although its communication is rarely without ambiguity.

The Anthropologists in Avatar

Publlished in The Heroic Anthropologist Rides Again: The Depiction of the Anthropologist in Popular Culture. Frank A., 2012

On a far distant moon in the far future technological civilization has reached its final limits. ... more On a far distant moon in the far future technological civilization has reached its final limits. A race of hunter gatherers is facing the onslaught of human technology. Who is there to save them from the ghastly destruction of technological warfare? Why, who else but anthropologists. Well, at least they look and act like anthropologists. Perhaps they should be called na'viologists. for the Na'vi race has gone beyond humans to establish a closer contact with the forces of life. for that reason, the film writers could not use the word "anthropologist," or perhaps, it is too dangerous for Hollywood to recognize the actual moral and scientific stance of anthropologists in the real world.

Published in the Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology. D. Levinson and M. Ember, eds. New York: Henry Holt and Company., 1996

The Otomían and Purépechan Cultures of Central Mexico

Supplement to the Handbook of Middle American Indians: Volume 6: Ethnology, 2000

La Religión de los otomíes de la Sierra

A Scientific Definition of Religion

Anpere: Anthropological Perspectives on Religion, Feb 19, 2007

Religion is a collection of behavior that is only unified in our Western conception of it. It nee... more Religion is a collection of behavior that is only unified in our Western conception of it. It need not have a natural unity. There is no reason to assume, and good reason not to assume, that all religious behavior evolved together at the same time in response to a single shift in the environment. This article does not look at the religion as a unified entity and seek a definition of its essence. Instead, it looks at what science needs to know in order to discover how and why religion came into existence as a human behavior. What does science need to know about religion, or how should religion be defined so that science can look at it? A definition that refers to observable behavior is required. Then, a preliminary hypothesis to orient observations is proposed. I suggest a preliminary hypothesis consisting of three stages in the evolution of religion:(1) a cognizer of unobservable agents, (2) a sacred category classifier, and (3) a motivator for public sacrifice. Each one of these stages is a nucleus of modern anthropological theorizing. Although they all come together in the Western folk concept of religion, this article proposes that they are independent evolutionary complexes that should not be lumped together, but should be investigated as separate types of religious behavior

Apprentice Shaman

Published as Chapter 11 in Apprenticeship: From Theory to Method and Back Again. Michael W. Coy, ed. State University of New York Press. Pp. 199-209., 1989

Religión Tradicional de los Ñähñu de la Sierra

Los Pueblos Indígenas de Hidalgo: Atlas Etnorgráfico, 2012