Altered States of Consciousness within a General Evolutionary Perspective: A Holocultural Analysis
Erika Bourguignon, Thomas L. Evascu
Behavior Science Research August 1, 1977 DOI: 10.1177/106939717701200303 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Reanalysis of data from earlier studies Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Societies studied in earlier data |
| Topics | Altered states of consciousness |
| Citations | 76 |
| Key points | Trance type is positively correlated with four selected evolutionary variables related to societal complexity and subsistence economy. |
Abstract
This paper represents a reanalysis of data from earlier studies sup porting the hypothesis that cultural patterning of altered states of con sciousness (trance) conforms to a monothetic general evolutionary scale of sociocultural behavior. Global correlations using holocultural method ology show trance type to be positively correlated with four selected evolutionary variables, two related to societal complexity and two related to subsistence economy.