Network Member
Harvey Whitehouse
Director, Centre for the Study of Social Cohesion, University of Oxford
Harvey Whitehouse is an anthropologist whose research focuses on the evolution of social complexity, and he is Director of the Centre for the Study of Social Cohesion at the University of Oxford. One of the founders of the cognitive science of religion, he is known for the theory of “modes of religiosity,” which relates the frequency and emotional intensity of collective rituals to the scale and structure of religious organisations. His work examines how collective rituals bind groups together and shape commitment and group structure, and how cultural groups grow, compete and cooperate over time. He is associated with the Centre for the Resolution of Intractable Conflict and the Seshat: Global History Databank.