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The Ādam Paradox Hypothesis 137
Ritual: The Cement of Groups
Ritual was not ornamental but structural. Burials with ochre signal more than
grief; they enact a community
’s shared narrative. Communal feasts do more
than distribute calories; they redistribute trust. Cave paintings, often located
deep in dark chambers, were likely not mere art but sacred acts binding groups
through myth.
Ritual achieves what no biological mechanism can: it forges communitas — the
sense of being one body. In this way, ritual became the cement of scaled
societies. Without it, groups fracture under tension. With it, they endure.
From Gossip to Institutions
As groups expanded, trust mechanisms evolved in layers:
1.Grooming (~50 individuals) — trust through physical contact, limited by
time.
2.Gossip (~150 individuals) — trust through reputations, tracked by
language.
3.Symbols (~500 individuals) — trust through shared ornaments, art, and
identity markers.
4.Ritual (~5,000 individuals) — trust through collective acts binding many
strangers.
5.Institutions (~50,000+) — trust through codified myths, laws, and rules.
6.States (~500,000+) — trust through bureaucracy, writing, and governance.
This layering explains the trajectory of human history: from foraging bands to
tribal societies, then to chiefdoms, city-states, and nations. Each leap was not
biological but symbolic.
Table 12.3 — Trust Mechanisms Across Scales