understanding of mechanical and biological processes around us. For
Guthrie, this also explained the human-like features of gods and spir-
its, the fact that however much people want to describe them as dif-
ferent from humans, they are in fact very much created in our own
image.^2
The anthropomorphic tendency described by Guthrie is certainly
there. However, before we understand how it contributes to people's
notions of supernatural agents, we must make this psychological
description a bit more specific. First, note that gods and spirits are not
represented as having humanfeatures in general but as having minds,
[144] which is much more specific. People represent supernatural agents
who perceive events, have thoughts and memories and intentions. But
they do not always project onto these agents other human characteris-
tics, such as having a body, eating food, living with a family or gradu-
ally getting older. Indeed, anthropologists know that the onlyfeature
of humans that is alwaysprojected onto supernatural beings is the
mind. Second, the concept of a mind is not exclusively human. As I
said in the last two chapters, it is part of our intuitive expectations that
animals as well as humans perceive what is going on around them,
react to those events, have goals and form plans. Intuitive psychologi-
cal inferences are applied to intentional agents in general, not just to
persons. So it is quite likely that concepts of gods and spirits are
mostly organized by our intuitive notions of agency in general (the
abstract quality that is present in animals, persons, and anything that
appears to move of its own accord, in pursuance of its own goals)
rather than just human agency.
SUPERNATURAL AGENTS
AND DANGEROUS BEASTSThe nuance is quite important because in many situations our intu-
itive systems can detect this generic form of agency without having a
description of what kind of agent is around. When we see branches
moving in a tree or when we hear an unexpected sound behind us, we
immediately infer that some agent is the cause of this salient event.
We can do that without any specific description of what the agent
actually is. As I said in the previous chapter, some inference systems
in the mind are specialized in the detection of apparent animacy and
agency in objects around us. This system is not concerned withRELIGION EXPLAINED