SCOTT ATRAN: Bonding with people with whom one has no genetic relationship--for the sake of defending  a sacred value or transcendent moral conception Humans define groups in abstract terms and bond with anonymous others with whom one may have no genetic relationship. People kill and die not to preserve their own lives or defend lives of family and friends, but for the sake of a transcendent moral conception. Sacred values differ from material values. They drive actions dissociated from prospects of success. Humans strive for intellectual and emotional bonding with anonymous others (with whom they may or may not be genetically related) and make their greatest exertions in killing and dying not to preserve their own lives or defend families--but for the sake of a transcendent object.