[vmchale]

Brian Hayden has a book right at the heart of this topic, how secret societies (terrorist proto-religions, think scientology+murder) anticipate civilization. You don't find such societies in precarious places, perhaps because extorting wealth isn't tolerated, though you do find them in hunter-gatherer societies as well as civilizations.

Unlike many paleontologists, he is willing to bring in psychology and unlike many anthropologists he is willing to doubt sincerity/motives.