ABSTRACT
A geopolitical system is built up by warfare or even threats of warfare, with one society coming to dominate another. With conquest or even political co-optation by virtue of Type-2 Spencerian selection comes a host of Type-1 Spencerian selection problems that affect the evolution of religions. It is necessary, then, to specify some of the conditions leading to warfare and conquest, as Type-2 Spencerian selection pushes religious evolution directly and indirectly via its effects on Type-1 selection pressures. Geopolitical warfare among societies is often a form of selection among superorganisms and their constituent institutional systems, especially polity and religion. The potential for geopolitical mobilization increases when a society can consolidate the bases of power—coercive, administrative, symbolic, and incentive—to control and manipulate individual and corporate actors in a society. The ceremonial events were deliberately used for political purposes to justify conquests and legitimate the political order thereby imposed.
