Evolutionary psychology is looking at fundamental questions about humankind. To summarise (probably very badly)...
(I have lost my references but probably can be googled for).
(Have I put in enough caveats yet?)
As far as researchers can tell, modern humans have existed with fundamentally unchanged mental capacity for about 250 thousand years. But human culture, in particular technology, as we recognise it (or can detect it anyway) has existed for a fraction of this time, about 75 thousand years. Independent evidence of this is that head-lice and body lice appear to have become separate species at the same time, suggesting that this is when clothes were invented.
The best explanation that they have to date is that spoken language and cultural attitude actually do shape reality _as_ _perceived_ _by_ _people_.
Without the knowledge and belief that progress is possible, progress does not happen. Or the belief that improvement in conditions is a "zero-sum game" where someone can become richer only if someone else becomes poorer leads to social structures where this is true.
>From the history of mathematics in the past 2,000 years we can even
see some examples of this.
For Romans and Greeks, multiplication and division were higher mathematics because the notation was difficult to manipulate (though it certainly was possible for them to achieve). The Arabic introduction of the concept of zero led to decimal notation, which meant that multiplication became possible to teach to anyone (though universal access to education was and still is an issue even to today).
Newton invented/formalised the calculus and Liebnitz invented an accessible notation to use it, arguably a much more important step (and I half remember that there is some debate as to whether Liebnitz independently invented/formalised the calculus). The calculus allowed statements to be made in mathematics that were simply not possible previously.
The upshot of what I am getting at is that mental tools, one example of which is mathematical notation, do actually limit the thoughts that a person or culture may have about the world, and more importantly limit the way that culture can change in response to changing conditions.
To bring this back to Glorantha. Certain survivors of the Darkness emerged with so little culture intact that they were unable to recognise the change in their circumstances due to the Sunrise. They could see that there were periods or light and dark but could not perceive that this could make a difference to their lifestyles. Quite possibly, many hid from the light because it was new and their only experience was that new things were bad... This is fully compatible with my understanding of what evolutionary psychology says about people in our world.
regards,
Charles
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