From Paganism to World Transcendence: Religious Attachment Theory and the Evolution of the World Religions

On the Genetic and Genomic Basis of Aggression, Violence, and Antisocial Behavior

The Neurology of Religion: An Explanation from Evolutionary Sociology

Divergence and Possible Consilience Between Evolutionary Biology and Sociology

During the past century, social scientists have documented many cross-cultural sex differences in personality and behavior, quite a few of which now appear to be found in all human societies. However, contrary to most scientists’ expectations, these so-called universal sex differences have been shown to be more pronounced in Western industrial societies than in most non-Western developing societies. This chapter briefly reviews the evidence bearing on these findings and offers a biologically based theory that could help shed light on why cross-cultural sex differences exist. The following hypothesis is offered: The expression of many genes influencing sexually dimorphic traits is more likely among descendants of couples who are least closely related to one another. If so, societies in which out-marriage is normative (i.e., Western industrial countries) will exhibit a stronger expression of genes for sexually dimorphic traits compared to societies in which consanguineal marriages are common.

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Lee Ellis is a semi-retired former Professor of Sociology at Minot State University and Visiting Professor in Anthropology and Sociology at the University of Malaya. His main areas of research are sex differences in behavior, social stratification, criminality, and religion.

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