Mortal Rituals
What the Story of the Andes Survivors Tells Us About Human Evolution
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- $2.99
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- $2.99
Publisher Description
A psychology professor examines what the survivors of the airplane crash hailed “The Miracle of the Andes” can show us about human evolution.
On December 21, 1972, sixteen young survivors of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 were rescued after spending ten weeks stranded at the crash site of their plane, high in the remote Andes Mountains. The incident made international headlines and spawned several best-selling books, fueled partly by the fact that the young men had resorted to cannibalism to survive.
Matt Rossano examines this story from an evolutionary perspective, weaving together findings and ideas from anthropology, psychology, religion, and cognitive science. During their ordeal, these young men broke “civilized” taboos to fend off starvation and abandoned “civilized” modes of thinking to maintain social unity and individual sanity. Through the power of ritual, the survivors were able to endure severe emotional and physical hardship. Rossano ties their story to our story, seeing in the mortal rituals of this struggle for survival a reflection of what it means to be human.
“[Rossano’s] narrative describes a “microcosm of human evolution,” and I think this book will grab the interest of many readers―students as well as the general public―as it teaches essential facts about the way Homo sapiens evolved.”—David Hicks, Stony Brook University and Clare College, Cambridge University
“[Rossano] masterfully weaves a moving contemporary drama with a compelling account of the evolutionary history of ritual and religion. An impressive accomplishment and a truly captivating read from start to finish.”—Richard Sosis, University of Connecticut, cofounder and coeditor of Religion, Brain, & Behavior
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The premise of Rossano's latest (after Supernatural Selection) is exciting, but the execution will leave some readers hungry. The Southeastern Louisiana University psychology prof draws heavily on previous accounts of the harrowing experiences of a rugby team whose plane crashed in 1972 in the Andes, but he mainly looks beyond empirical descriptions to examine the events from a theoretical perspective. Most passengers died immediately, but Rossano is most interested in the 16 who survived brutal cold at a high elevation for 10 weeks by living off the remains of their friends. He explores the decisions the survivors made, from dividing up chores to selecting leaders, and investigates how they maintained their sanity and retained their humanity under such extreme conditions. More than using the amazing story to illuminate principles associated with human evolution, however, Rossano uses it as a jumping-off point to discuss anthropological, psychological, and evolutionary ideas, such as the sociological function of rituals, the differences between egalitarian and hierarchical communities, the importance of song and dance, the practices of tool making and burial, as well as the nature of religion. The tie-in to the Andes survivors is sometimes tenuous and speculative, but Rossano's suppositions and hypotheses are nevertheless thought provoking. Photos & illus.
