# Big Gods **Entity class:** Book / research framework **Domain:** Cognitive science of religion / cooperation **Author:** [[wiki/Ara Norenzayan|Ara Norenzayan]] **Maturity:** Developing ## Definition ***Big Gods: How Religion Transformed Cooperation and Conflict*** develops an account of moralizing, monitoring deities and their relationship to cooperation, norm enforcement, intergroup conflict, and the growth of large communities. ## Corpus Role [[blog/20261007 - The Prayers of Primates|The Prayers of Primates]] reads supernatural monitoring alongside [[wiki/Primate Rank-Maintenance|Primate Rank-Maintenance]]: a watcher and punisher can occupy the apex of an extended social hierarchy even when the apex is not physically present. ## Evidence Boundary The Big Gods framework is a research argument about recurrent relationships among religious belief, monitoring, cooperation, and conflict. It does not show that every god is moralizing, that every religion depends on supernatural punishment, or that belief is merely strategic compliance. ## Relationships - [[wiki/How Religion Evolved|How Religion Evolved]] - [[wiki/Ara Norenzayan|Ara Norenzayan]] - [[wiki/Submission to Hierarchy|Submission to Hierarchy]] - [[wiki/Mentalizing Network|Mentalizing Network]] - [[wiki/Human Animality|Human Animality]] ## Sources / Provenance - [[wiki/Ara Norenzayan|Ara Norenzayan]], *Big Gods: How Religion Transformed Cooperation and Conflict*, Princeton University Press, 2013.