Religious Archetypes as Cultural Attractors: A Computational Framework for Memetic Fitness

This is a detailed manuscript outline and research proposal for a forthcoming journal article on the Cultural Attractor Framework (CAF). CAF proposes that religious archetypes (e.g., prophets, messiahs) emerge and persist as stable attractors within cultural transmission systems, driven by selective processes analogous to computational optimization. It integrates insights from memetic theory, cognitive science of religion, and cultural evolution theory. The outlined research employs a multi-method approach, combining BERT-based textual analysis of Abrahamic religious texts to quantify archetypal traits, agent-based modeling to simulate cultural transmission dynamics under various conditions, and cross-cultural correlation analysis using the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample to link archetype complexity with societal variables. Preliminary and simulated results demonstrate systematic trait selection in archetypes (e.g., high sacrifice-to-reward ratios), their correlation with environmental and social pressures (e.g., group size, crisis frequency), and the superior performance of archetypal behavioral strategies in challenging environments. This framework offers quantitative tools and empirically testable predictions for understanding belief system dynamics and cultural evolution, bridging qualitative and computational approaches in the study of culture