I would also add: cults tend to micro-manage the sexual relationships and reproductive strategies of their members.
Sometimes this involves minimizing sexual activity, so cult members direct all of their energy and time into cult-propagation rather than mating effort. Sometimes it involves maximizing sexual connections or endogamous marriages within the cult, so people don’t feel any tension between their relationship commitments and their cult commitments.
Sometimes cults are anti-natalist and strongly discourage reproduction in order to maximize energy and time directed into cultural cult-propagation (i.e. ‘horizontal cultural transmission’). Sometimes they’re pro-natalist and strongly encourage reproduction in order to create new recruits for the next generation (i.e. ‘vertical cultural transmission’).
An implication is that the more ‘normal’ EA seems in terms of relationship formation (e.g. a nice mix of ‘cultural inbreeding’ within the group and outbreeding outside the group), and family formation (e.g. people having kids, but not crazy numbers of kids), the less cult-like we’ll seem.
Interesting post, and some valid points.
I would also add: cults tend to micro-manage the sexual relationships and reproductive strategies of their members.
Sometimes this involves minimizing sexual activity, so cult members direct all of their energy and time into cult-propagation rather than mating effort. Sometimes it involves maximizing sexual connections or endogamous marriages within the cult, so people don’t feel any tension between their relationship commitments and their cult commitments.
Sometimes cults are anti-natalist and strongly discourage reproduction in order to maximize energy and time directed into cultural cult-propagation (i.e. ‘horizontal cultural transmission’). Sometimes they’re pro-natalist and strongly encourage reproduction in order to create new recruits for the next generation (i.e. ‘vertical cultural transmission’).
An implication is that the more ‘normal’ EA seems in terms of relationship formation (e.g. a nice mix of ‘cultural inbreeding’ within the group and outbreeding outside the group), and family formation (e.g. people having kids, but not crazy numbers of kids), the less cult-like we’ll seem.