Ancient human sacrifice and our modern world

The Washington Post and New Scientist highlighted new research which showed that ritual human sacrifice played a big role in the development of inherited class systems.

However, a few experts questioned the study’s conclusions. According to UBC’s Joseph Henrich, the researchers used phylogenetic analysis–which assumes that social strata and religious rituals are inherited and evolve in the same way as languages. But there’s evidence that culture doesn’t necessarily develop that way. He pointed to two aspects of culture in the region that played out differently: human sacrifice, which has largely disappeared, and languages, which are still being passed down through generations.