Overview

In The Grain Gods: How Wheat Shaped Faith and Why the Evidence Remains Elusive, Riaan de Beer embarks on a meticulous exploration of one of humanity's most intriguing intersections: how our food sources may have influenced the very structure of our beliefs. Could the rise of grain-based agriculture-wheat, barley, and rice-have fostered centralized, hierarchical religions like Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, while animal-focused hunting and herding supported decentralized, shamanic traditions of the Bronze Age? De Beer poses this provocative hypothesis, only to subject it to unrelenting scrutiny through a null-hypothesis framework: Assume no causal link exists, and let the evidence decide. Drawing on multidisciplinary evidence-from cross-cultural databases like SCCS and D-PLACE, archaeological isotope analyses, and nutritional neuroscience on gluten exorphins and omega-3s-this book systematically tests the idea across global case studies (Eurasia, the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Oceania). It delves into biological pathways, methodological tools (including phylogenetic controls for cultural diffusion), counterexamples that uphold the null, and forward-looking implications, even extending to extraterrestrial colonization where advanced veterinary sciences could sustain humane animal husbandry on Mars. What sets this work apart is its intellectual humility: Correlations are presented with effect sizes and robustness checks, but sweeping claims are avoided. Appendices offer correlation tables, glossaries, sensitivity analyses, and bibliographies for deeper dives. A self-roast section adds wry humor, underscoring the book's theme of evidential elusiveness. Ideal for readers of James C. Scott's Against the Grain or Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel, this 2026 release is a foundational text in evolutionary anthropology of religion. It doesn't deliver easy answers but equips you to question materialist explanations with rigor. Whether you're an academic, history buff, or curious skeptic, de Beer's disciplined inquiry reveals the limits-and lingering mysteries-of how our plates shaped our prayers. Includes sections on Galton's problem and a null hypothesis primer, making it a benchmark for skeptical scholarship.

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