State-ordained superstition? That reminds me of the story of the ROman sacred chickens:

"...Even the army resorted to taking auspices. They carried with them cages with sacred chicken. When cake was crumbled onto the floor before them, would they eat or not ? Depending on that, the omens were either good or bad.
At the sea battle of Drepanum in 249 BC, the consul Claudius Pulcher is said to have thrown the sacred chicken overboard, once they refused to eat their cake. He commented, that if they did not eat, they could at least drink. It was clear that his subsequent catastrophic defeat in battle by the Carthaginians was blamed on his having ignored the auspices"

But of course, the Romans weren't the first to do such things.
Ancient societies always had a very strong religious character. The people where trying to explain the world around them, and came to the conclusion that all was governed by Gods. (Gods will fit in almost all AM-topics).
If you wanted something (good harvest/ less child death) then you would ask a god to help you.
Gods requested something in return. A sacrifice, a gift, or something similar. Most early religious didn't have a strong moral aspect like Chistianity.
The King, who was the head of society was often the one of the high priests, he rules in the name of the god over the people.

Ancient Sience and religion where therefor almost the same. If you wanted to know how the world around you worked you had to know the magic to make the nature work for you.
They believed discovering these secrets would give them control over nature (and thus also over things like sickness and such).

Many of these state-religions had a strong magical aspect to them. At certain times of the year the king would have to perform rituals at the farmlands, to make sure there would be enough food.
He was the go-between between the normal man and the gods. And sometimes was considered a (demi) god himself or a incarnation/ son of a god.
The king and the priest where believed to be "part of" the grand plan of the gods.
When you look at Ancient Egypt, you see that the religion consists for a large part of making sacrifices, potions, holy murals, incantations and such. The pharao and priest relied on magic to make the gods help them.
When the pharao died he became a god.

Ever since the kings have ruled "by the grace of God". The last (European) kings to perform what you might call "magic rituals" where the French kings.
The French believed that their kings could heal people by the touch of their hands on someones had.
When a French noble remarked to Louis XIV that he was doing the same thing as a Polynesian tribal-head, the king had him killed for insulting the "one and true Christian God"
The French kings wanted to be spoken of as "Their Most Christian Majesties" because they where related to Saint Louis (King Louis IX), who was the patron-saint of France. (he is also the patron saint of masons, barbers, engineers, and other professions, but that is of no importance for this topic)

Maybe the magic aspect of the early religions would be an interesting idea.