It has become the principal source of personal income, wealth, learning, and identity. In societies more complex than tribes and clans, social organization is economic and political. Command over resources and force often count most here. Chiefdoms and states are the products of this kind of leadership. Some social anthropologists have interpreted religion as a reflection of society itself.
Science is the central shaper of secularism in our day.
These divergent ideologies account for the ongoing conflict between advocates of evolution and creationism, especially prominent in American schools today. This is, however, a relatively recent innovation. Art Music, dance, painting, sculpture, theater, film, and so on are forms of art. The arts often integrate material, social, and ideological culture, and have been used as fundamental tools in the process of enculturation. Thus, historically, they have served to integrate the individual into the group.