In the absence of knowledge, intelligent life fills the voids with perception. This perception, in the beginning, bears little relationship to factual reality, especially in terms of the fundamental nature of things and how things work. As language and the ability to communicate perception develops, highly delusional cognitive systems come into place, further degraded by any deliberate insertion of false concepts. The primitive humanoid cannot understand the forces of nature and the unpredictability of fortune. It sees it's own and other's ability to affect changes through force and thinks there must be greater unseen powers affecting those areas outside of individual control.
Social control begins in terms of force and authoritarianism.
All social systems function to maintain control ultimately by force, although the emerging intelligent life form quickly learns that behavior will follow belief. Belief becomes the main means of controlling behavior consistent with the agendas of human institutions, force being brought to bear when indoctrination, dogma and coercion fails. This form of control is authoritarianism. It is arbitrary, determinations being by made by the authority, to any extent possible or desired. Human history is largely a repeating story of a struggle for power by competing authorities.