"The Evolutionary Roots of Religious Adaptation" by Chelsea Strayer

Ted.com:

Chelsea Shields is a biocultural anthropologist, a research and strategy consultant, and an outspoken activist for women’s rights.

Chelsea Shields is a biological and cultural anthropologist with over a decade of research experience in populations at home and around the world. She’s also a strategist with broad training in user experience, brand strategy, social media and human behavior. 

The Melrose Show – Episode 006: The Seastar of Bio-Social Anthropology; Dr. Chelsea Shields:

Dr. Chelsea Shields, a bio-social anthropologist, strategic research consultant, women’s rights activist, mormon, speaker, author, mother and wife and so much more. She accomplished 2 PHDs, debt free by the way, which pretty much defines a modern female boss. Born and raised in the Mormon community in Utah, Dr. Chelsea knew there was more to life than her community let on. She is unapologetically ambitious and rightfully so. She’s changing science with placebo studies and human evolution expert work and research, through her time in West Africa, and in all her endeavors now. Her current book project is about removing herself from social media. So no links to social with this goddess, but when she jumps back in next year, we will make sure to add her handles in here.

An excerpt from, “Choosing Between Two Rights: Chelsea Shields Strayer” The LDS Women Project, September 30, 2009:

Are you bringing Latter-day Saint doctrine into your thesis discussion?

No, my thesis is very different. My research looks at the biological aspects of the indigenous healing ceremonies. This past year I was there, I actually took measurements before and after the ceremonies — physiological measurements of heart rate, blood pressures — and I show that there’s a relaxation response that occurs during the healing ceremony via the rhythmic drumming, the dancing and the chanting and praying. There is actually a physical relaxation response which promotes healing. I’m trying to show why these healings actually do work. In America, the relaxation response has been studied thoroughly — if you adjust physical states and you get your body back to homeostasis your body can function and heal itself quicker. I would love to study priesthood blessings in the same way — show how this same principle of relaxation response corroborates with our healing experiences.

Can you describe the conditions you’ve been living in the past year while in Ghana?

Well, first of all, I have to say, my husband is a trooper! He has traveled a lot and so when I proposed we go live in Africa together for a year he kept saying, “Oh I’ll be fine!” And I said, “No, this is different…”

At first, we lived in a family compound. The compounds in the villages are a bunch of rooms in a circle with a courtyard in the middle where everyone cooks and interacts. But at night the whole place would be locked up. So we were locked in our room every night. And our room was a concrete box. So the third night, I ended up having to go to the bathroom and I was locked in this room! We ended up having a bedpan — in the 21st century! — so that if I had to pee I could just wake up and do it there and we’d take it out in the morning. Also, you can hear everything. People will play music all night long so they can have conversations and live their lives without their neighbors and in-laws hearing. So all night long you’d hear Celine Dion in French or you’d hear domestic abuse… There was a baby who got circumcised in a room close to ours and you could tell it was done unprofessionally and the poor kid got infected and just screamed all night. There were goats and chickens roaming around… After one night when all of the above occurred, my dear husband said, “I cannot take this for a year!” So we ended up moving to a teacher’s dorm at a boarding school, and we had our own little flat. That was nice, and my husband ended up teaching English at the boarding school. It wasn’t as crazy there.

We got malaria, typhoid. All sorts of crazy stuff. We were in the middle of nowhere. We were getting our water in a bucket from a pond, and we had to bucket shower and wash all our clothes by hand. We had to iron all of our clothes cause there’s this thing called botfly and it lays its eggs in anything that’s damp. So botfly lands on your clothes and lays and egg and if you wear it, even if you think it feels dry, they can actually go into your skin and grow. We had to iron all our garments! Most locals let the little girls in the village wash their clothes, but we didn’t feel comfortable doing that so we washed and ironed them all ourselves. But garments aren’t made to be ironed, so I had all these garments that were normal sized when I got there and hanging way down to my calves by the time I left!

Was the past year good for your marriage?

It was fantastic. Well, I don’t know: we’re pretty co-dependent now! My husband flew home to the States once while we were there and he missed his flight cause we had been traveling together for a year and a half and we were so used to our different roles that he forgot his passport. Passports had been my job! We had become so close as partners that we were in trouble when we were separated.

To wrap up, I want to return to the idea I started with that has defined so much of my experience: There are times when both sides are right. I could have married my first boyfriend or I could have pursued my interest in Africa. Both were right. The gospel works, but so do traditional healings. I often think of Eve when she had two choices: Eat fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, or obey God and abstain. They were both right, they were both good. The whole situation put her in a position of making a decision. She made a choice, and she paid the price for that choice. We are put in the same position in our own lives. Life can be a series of varying good choices. This is specifically applicable to women in the Church. We judge each other because we think there’s one right way, but really were constantly met with a series of choices where both options are good. Both can be right. But you have to accept the consequences of whatever you choose. I think it is in that active decision making where we grow and learn.

Video Title: “The Evolutionary Roots of Religious Adaptation” by Chelsea Strayer. Source: Mormon Transhumanist Association. Date Published: April 29, 2014. Description:

At the 2014 Conference of the Mormon Transhumanist Association, speakers addressed the themes of Mormonism, Transhumanism and Transfigurism, with particular attention to topics at the intersection of technology, spirituality, science and religion. Members, friends and critics of the association have many views. This is one of them. It is not necessarily shared by others.