intuitions about exchange and fairness. We know that these systems
are constantly active. In a social species such as homo sapiens, many
occurrences of good and bad fortune are the result of what others are
up to. Your social environment is the source of protection, benefits
and danger.
As a consequence, whenever a salient occurrence is represented in
the mind, the product is an interpretation in terms of "someone"
doing something. A scenario like that is generally entertained in the
decoupled mode, as a conjecture that would make sense of what hap-
pens. Such a scenario makes whatever other representations you may
have about powerful agents much more relevant. If these representa- [201]
tions describe supernatural agents (witches, gods, spirits) with special
powers, this may be all the better, as they provide a convenient iden-
tity for the "someone" in the conjectural scenario.
So it is true that notions of gods and spirits help people under-
stand misfortune. True but insufficient, because gods and spirits
would be irrelevant if people had not already construed misfortune
in such a way that it makes sense to include gods and spirits in its
explanation. If your representation of misfortune generally treats it
as an effect of violations of social exchange, it will potentially include
any agent with whom you interact. But spirits and gods are precisely
represented as engaging in social interaction with people, especially
in social exchange. More important, they are represented as having
all the strategic information relevant to interaction between people.
So they are among the potential candidates for sources of misfor-
tune, just like neighbors, relatives and envious partners, except more
so. Gods and spirits are relevant in such a context but far from indis-
pensable.
That misfortune is seen in terms of social interaction explains not
just that supernatural agents are a source of danger but also that they
can be perceived as protectors. This is a major theme in many religious
doctrines. Indeed in some of them it is the major theme in people's rep-
resentations of powerful gods. In the Psalmist's words, "I will fear no
evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff will comfort me." This
is not exclusively a Christian notion; far from it. The Kwaio ancestors
too are often considered protectors. Comparing familiar doctrines with
less familiar notions of ancestors helps us understand that the emo-
tional interpretation (there is a god who loves the believer) is only one
possible variation on a theme that is much more common: that gods
and spirits have a stake in what happens to people.^17
WHYDOGODS ANDSPIRITSMATTER?