Did Religion Initiate the Neolithic Revolution and Later Facilitate the Creation of Ancient States?

Drawing on the novel hypothesis of archaeologist Jacques Cauvin on the origins of the Neolithic Revolution based on evidence, this paper explores the plausibility of religion initiating the Neolithic transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture. I cast religion as a club good that is bolstered by rituals (for which there is ample evidence from the period of Neolithic incipience), and supply a model that attempts to identify why the hypothesis is very plausible on economic grounds. The core mechanism of the model is that religion facilitates the public good investments needed for agriculture. The theory also provides reasons for believing that religion may have further aided these agricultural societies to create ancient states in order to solve the collective action problem inherent in large-scale investments like irrigation.