Religious Ritual and Cooperation: Testing for a Term Paper

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Religious Ritual and Cooperation: Testing for a Relationship on Israeli Religious and Secular Kibbutzim," authors Richard Sosis and Bradley J. Ruffle investigate the link between religious ritual and group solidarity among a sample of kibbutzim in Israel. Sosis is a faculty member of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Connecticut at Storrs. Ruffle, on the other hand, is an economist with the Ben-Gurion University in Beer Sheva, Israel. Ruffle's contacts and familiarity with Israeli kibbutzim were invaluable in facilitating this research.

The theoretical basis of this research was Emile Durkheim's pronouncement that religious rituals functioned to promote group solidarity. Durkheim argued that religious rituals help to maintain social cohesion and to promote social stability within their community. Though this idea is widely-accepted in social science circles, few empirical studies have actually been conducted to test this theory. Furthermore, no empirical studies have been conducted to see how religious rituals and group solidarity translate to greater intergroup cooperation.

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Sosis and Ruffle attempt to test this theory by conducting statistical analyses among kibbutzim in Israel. These kibbutzim, small farming communities where people live together and share communal resources, are common in Israel. The two researchers selected a sampling of religious and secular kibbutzim, gathering data between February through May 2000. A week prior to their arrival, the two researchers sent letters of introduction, explaining the nature of their research.

The experiment itself was a simple variation of the "common-pool" resource problems that are conducted in other data gathering research experiments. In this version, Sosis and Ruffle randomly pick two members of the same kibbutz. These members are interviewed separately and remain anonymous to one another. Each subject is then presented with an envelope containing 100 shekels (approximately $25). The individual is then instructed to request money from….....

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