Professor Harvey Whitehouse

Presentations

2009

Harvey Whitehouse
‘Explaining Religion’
Keynote Lecture, 10th Anniversary Annual Inter-University Graduate Conference, ‘Culture, Cognition, and Construction’, London School of Economics, 23/5/2009.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Whence and Whither Social Anthropology’
International Colloquium to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the Fyssen Foundation, Grand Amphitheatre du Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, 16/5/2009.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Explaining Religion’
Lecture followed by extended discussion with the media at the Møller Centre, University of Cambridge, 16/4/2009.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Explaining Religion’
The Wiegand Lecture, University of Toronto, Faculty of Arts and Science, Canada, 6/4/2009.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Explaining Religion’
EvoS Lecture, Binghamton University, New York, 3/4/2009.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Explaining Religion’
SPA/SAR Joint Biennial Conference Asilomar, California, 28/3/2009.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Explaining ‘Cargo Cults’’
Public Lecture, St Martin’s Community Centre, Camden Town, London, 3/3/2009.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Testing the Modes Theory Using Ethnography’
Research Seminar, Department for the Study of Religions, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, 23/2/2009.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Why Do Religions Differ’
Public Lecture, Department for the Study of Religions, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, 23/2/2009.

2008

Harvey Whitehouse
‘Explaining Religion’
Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness and Soc for Anthropology of Religion Invited Session on ‘Religion, Anthropology, and Cognitive Science’, 107th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, San Francisco, 20/11/2008.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Explaining Religion’
Ritual Dynamics and the Science of Ritual, Collaborative Research Centre SFB 619, ‘Ritual Dynamics’ International Conference, Heidelberg, Germany, 1/10/2008.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Explaining Relgion’
Integrating the Humanities and the Sciences Conference, Peter Wall Institute, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, 27/9/2008.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Explaining Religion’
Public Lecture (with honorarium¬), Green College, University of British Colombia, Canada, 22/9/2008.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Testing the Theory of Modes of Religiosity’
Invited Lecture (with honorarium) The Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia, 13/9/2008.
harvey Whitehouse
‘Introduction to the Anthropology of Religion: The strange case of cargo cults’
Invited Lecture (with honorarium), The Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia, 11/9/2008.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Explaining Religion’
Keynote Lecture, Eighth Conference of the European Association for the Study of Religions, Brno, Czech Republic, 10/9/2008.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Modes of Religiosity: A cognitive explanation’
Invited Lecture (with honorarium), The Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia, 10/9/2008.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Explaining Religion’
Keynote Lecture, Religion and Cognition in Context Workshop, Aarhus, Denmark, 1/6/2008.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Explaining religion’
A filmed lecture by invitation only, Waynflete Symposium on Anthropology (with special guest Sir David Attenborough), Magdalen College, Oxford, 3/5/2008.

2007

Harvey Whitehouse
‘Explaining Religion’
Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness and Society for Anthropology of Religion Invited Session on ‘Cognitive Theory of Religion’; 106th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Washington DC at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, 1/12/2007.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Overview of EXREL Project’
Public Lecture, Faculty of Theology, University of Aarhus, Denmark, 17/9/2007.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Religious Life at Çatalhöyük’
Second Site Seminar in the Project on Spirituality and religious ritual in the emergence of civilization: Çatalhöyük as a case study, Çatalhöyük, Turkey, 3/8/2007.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘A Cognitive Theory of Religious Innovation and Transmission’
International Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, Vienna, Austria, 24/7/2007.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Explaining Religion’
Public Lecture, James Martin 21st Century School, Philosophy Faculty Centre, University of Oxford, 11/6/2007.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Evolution and Religion’
Culture and Cognition Seminar, Department of Anthropology, London School of Economics, 30/5/2007.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Cognitive Evolution and Religion; Cognition and Religious Evolution’ Inaugural Address’
Evolution of Religion Conference, Oahu, Hawaii, 3/1/2007.

2006

Harvey Whitehouse
‘Explaining Religion’
Departmental Seminar, School of Psychology, University of Oxford, 21/11/2006.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Evolutionary Psychology and the Anthropology of Religion’’
Public Lecture, The British Academy, London, 28/4/2006.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Religious Universals and Religious Variation’
International Workshop on Religion and Cognition, Centre for the Cognitive Science of Religion, Groningen, Netherlands, 6/4/2006.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Explaining Religion’
Public Lecture of The Evolution and Human Adaptation Program and The Culture and Cognition Program Colloquium on Evolution and Culture, University of Michigan, 17/3/2006.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Darwin and the Scientific Study of Religion’
Darwin Day Lecture, Walton Theatre, Trinity College Dublin, 9/2/2006.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘The Role of Emotion in the Transmission of Rituals’
Public Lecture, Religion und Emotion Interdisziplinäres Forschungskolloquium, Collegium Helveticum, Zurich, 3/2/2006.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Closing Remarks’
Cognitive Development and Cultural Transmission Workshop, London School of Economics, 7/1/2006.

2005

Harvey Whitehouse
‘Mind, Brain, and Religion’
Oxford Centre for the Study of the Mind, Department of Pharmacology, University of Oxford, 28/11/2005.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Cognition and Religious Transmission’
Public Lecture, Amphithéâtre Marguerite de Navarre, Collège de France, Paris, 13/10/2005.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘The Evolution and History of Religion’
Marett Lecture, University of Oxford, 16/9/2005.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Memory and Religion’
Memory Day, Institute of Irish Studies, Queen's University Belfast, 19/5/2005.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Re-Appraising the Modes Theory: some qualifications and extensions’
Nineteenth World Congress of the International Association for the History of Religions, Tokyo, Japan, 30/3/2005.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Modes of Religiosity in the Graeco-Roman World: A Response to "Imagistic Modes of Religiosity in the Graeco-Roman World’
Nineteenth World Congress of the International Association for the History of Religions, Tokyo, Japan, 29/3/2005.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘The Evolution and History of Religion’
The Matthew Vassar Lecture, Vassar College, New York, 21/2/2005.

2004

Harvey Whitehouse
‘The Evolution and History of Religion: Theorizing Religious Transmission’
Annual Meeting of the North American Association for the Study of Religion, San Antonio, 22/11/2004.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Cognition and Culture’
Inaugural Lecture, Larmor Lecture Theatre, Queen’s University Belfast, 1/6/2004.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Rituals and Cognition’
Forskerskolen Religion/ Identitet/ Kultur Det Teologiske Fakultet, Aarhus Universitet, convened in Sandbjerg, Southern Jutland, Denmark, 1/4/2004.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Modes of Religiosity’
Centre for the Study of Religion, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, 30/3/2004.

2003

Harvey Whitehouse
‘Ritual Form and Ritual Frequency’
Annual Meeting of the North American Association for the Study of Religion, Atlanta, 21/11/2003.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Ritual, Transmission, and Memory’’
Guest Lecture, Washington University in St. Louis, 28/10/2003.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘The Ritual Form Hypothesis and the Theory of Modes of Religiosity’
Annual Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Norfolk, Virginia, 24/10/2003.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Opening Remarks’ and ‘Closing Remarks’’
British Academy and Emory University Conference on ‘the Psychological and Cognitive Foundations of Religiosity’, Emory Conference Center, 14/8/2003.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Ritual, Trauma and Memory’
Institute of Irish Studies Seminar Programme, QUB, 27/2/2003.

2002

Harvey Whitehouse
‘The Imagistic Mode: a response to the panel’
Annual Meeting of the SBL, panel on ‘Imagistic Traditions in the Graeco-Roman World’, Toronto, 24/11/2002.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘A Response to the Panel’
Annual Meeting of the North American Association for the Study of Religion, panel on ‘Cognition and Culture: implications of the ‘modes of religiosity’ theory for the study of religion’, Toronto, 23/11/2002.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Modes of Religiosity: the evidence from Archaeology and Historiography’’
British Academy Networks Conference on Modes of Religiosity, University of Vermont, Burlington, 1/8/2002.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Ritual, Emotion, and Memory: the case of high-arousal, low-frequency rites’
International Seminar on the Anthropology of Memory, Laboratoire d'anthropologie sociale of the Collège de France, Paris, France, 11/6/2002.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Ritual, Emotion, and Cognition’
Staff Seminar, School of Anthropological Studies, Queen’s University of Belfast, 7/5/2002.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Transmission of Religious Concepts’
Minds and Gods: the cognitive science of religion, International Conference sponsored by the University of Michigan, Culture and Cognition Program, and the John Templeton Foundation, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, 29/3/2002.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Ritual Unity: building nationalism in Papua New Guinea’
For God and Country, Spring Symposium of the Center for the Study of Religious, Virginia Wesleyan College, USA, 26/3/2002.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Explaining the Social Morphology of Religion’
CNRS seminar, Paris, France, 15/3/2002.

2001

Harvey Whitehouse
‘Concluding Remarks’
British Academy Networks Conference on Modes of Religiosity, King’s College, Cambridge, 20/12/2001.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Ritual, Emotion, and Memory’
specialist seminar for anthropologists, King’s College Cambridge, 22/11/2001.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Modes of Religiosity’
Public Lecture, King’s College Cambridge, 21/11/2001.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Memory and Motivation in Religion: some causes and consequences of alternative modalities of transmission’
Departmental Seminar, Departmental Seminar, School of Oriental and African Studies, London, 31/10/2001.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘The Role of Emotion in the Transmission of Religious Rituals: assessing the evidence for two cognitive hypotheses’
CNRS-CREDO workshop on ‘Emotion, Memorization, and Knowledge Transmission', Marseille, France, 14/9/2001.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Modes of Religiosity’
Joseph Lister Award Lecture, British Association Festival of Science, Glasgow, 6/9/2001.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Cognition and Ritual’
International Culture and Cognition Program, University of Michigan, 13/5/2001.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Modes of Religiosity’
Public Lecture (televised), University of Vermont, USA, 16/4/2001.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Memetics and the Epidemiology of Representations’
Inaugural Lecture for the AHRB Centre for the Evolutionary Analysis of Cultural Behaviour, University College London, 16/2/2001.

2000

Harvey Whitehouse
‘Explaining Religion’
Keynote Lecture, Festival Seminar in Comparative Religion, University of Helsinki, Finland, 1/12/2000.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Modes of Religiosity’
Annual Meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Houston, USA, 18/10/2000.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘The Effects of Transmissive Frequency on Memory for Ritual Actions and Exegesis’
Quinquennial Congress of the International association for the History of Religions, Durban, South Africa, 31/7/2000.

1999

Harvey Whitehouse
‘Religious Reflexivity and Transmissive Frequency’
Institute of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark, 15/9/1999.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Situating Human Nature’
Human Nature in Question, British Association Annual Festival of Science, Sheffield, 13/9/1999.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Implicit and Explicit Knowledge of Ritual’
Research Seminar on Anthropological Theory, London School of Economics, 11/6/1999.

1998

Harvey Whitehouse
‘Modes of Religiosity in the European Reformation and the Missionization of Melanesia’
Words and Things in the Anthropology of Christianity, Department of Anthropology, London School of Economics, 24/9/1998.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Epidemiological Approaches to Ritual’
International Conference on Biological and Cognitive Perspectives on the Transmission of Culture, School of Anthropological Studies, Queen’s University of Belfast, 17/9/1998.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘The Organization and Transmission of Cosmology in Melanesia and Amazonia’
Departmental Seminar, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge, 6/2/1998.

1997

Harvey Whitehouse
‘Mind, Evolution, and Cultural Transmission’
Nouvelle Approches de la Tradition, Ministere de la Recherche, Laboratoire d'Anthropologie Sociale, CNRS, Paris, France, 15/12/1997.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Transmissive Modalities and Network-Formation in the Paliau Movement, Papua New Guinea’
5th Conference of the European Association of Social Anthropologists, Frankfurt, Germany, 4/9/1997.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Arguments and Icons’
Nouvelle Approches de la Tradition, Ministere de la Recherche, Laboratoire d'Anthropologie Sociale, CNRS, Paris, France, 21/5/1997.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Christianity and “Cargo Cults” in Melanesia’
Words and Things: workshop on the anthropology of Christianity, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Manchester, 16/5/1997.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Modes of Religiosity and Political Evolution in Melanesia’
Departmental Seminar, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Edinburgh, 28/2/1997.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘From Mission to Movement’
Departmental Seminar, Department of Social Anthropology, University of St. Andrews, 27/2/1997.

1996

Harvey Whitehouse
‘The Role of Missionization in Changing Patterns of Cognition and Political Association in Papua New Guinea’
Third Conference of the European Society of Oceanists, Copenhagen, Denmark, 13/12/1996.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Jungles and Computers: neuronal group selection and the epidemiology of representations’
Public Lecture, Western Michigan University, USA, 15/2/1996.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘The Pomio Kivung of East New Britain Province, PNG’
25th Annual Meeting of the Association for Social Anthropology, Oceania, Hawaii, USA, 7/2/1996.

1995

Harvey Whitehouse
‘Neuronal Group Selection and the Epidemiology of Representations’
ESRC Research Seminar on Memory and Social Transmission, Queen's University of Belfast, 16/5/1995.

1993

Harvey Whitehouse
‘Modes of Ritual Action’
Workshop: Cognition and Interaction in Ritual Performance, King's College, Cambridge, 6/12/1993.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Some thoughts on the relationship between cognition, emotion, and politics in Melanesian religion’
Departmental Seminar, Dept. of Social Anthropology, University of Manchester, 22/11/1993.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘The Role of Terror in Melanesian Religion’
Departmental Seminar, Dept. of Social Anthropology, Queen's University of Belfast, 26/10/1993.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Nationalism and the Indigenous Movements of Papua New Guinea’
Spring Conference of the Anthropological Association of Ireland, Queen's University of Belfast, 7/5/1993.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Religions of Fear, and Religions of Routine’
Departmental Seminar, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford, 5/3/1993.

1992

Harvey Whitehouse
‘The Politics of Revelation: the Pomio Kivung and the Taro Cult as alternative politico-religious regimes’
First European Colloquium on Pacific Studies, Nijmegen, Netherlands, 17/12/1992.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Seeking the Spirit of Authority: the role of attribution in possession and inspired leadership’
21st Annual Meeting of the Association for Social Anthropology, Oceania, New Orleans, USA, 19/2/1992.

1991

Harvey Whitehouse
‘From Possession to Apotheosis’
International Conference in Honour of Sir Raymond Firth, London School of Economics, 19/12/1991.
Harvey Whitehouse
‘Memory, Religion, and Change: two extreme cases from Papua New Guinea’
Intercollegiate Research Seminar in Anthropology, Dept. of Anthropology, London School of Economics, 25/10/1991.