ABSTRACT
Humans often rely on cultural, religious, or other personal worldviews to find their own meanings. Though typically studied from social science perspectives, these conceptions are also shaped by neural, genetic, and other biological factors. This chapter proposes a neurosemiotic account of culture and religion beyond such disciplinary demarcations. We first review the centrality of meaning in cultural psychology. Next, we discuss how meaning is necessary for interpreting results in cultural neuroscience and genetics. We then discuss examples from religion as a core species-specific manifestation of culture. Finally, we discuss the importance of integrating neurosemiotics into our analyses of religion and culture, and we suggest steps for future research.
