Time allocation, religious observance, and illness in Mayan horticulturalists

Abstract

Analysis of individual differences in religious observance in a Belizean community showed that the most religious (pastors and church workers) reported more illnesses, and that there was no tendency for the religiously observant to restrict their interactions to family or extended family. Instead, the most religiously observant tended to have community roles that widened their social contact: religion did not aid isolation - thus violating a key assumption of the parasite-stress theory of sociality.