Rethinking Social Evolution The Perspective from Middle Range Societies 1st Edition by Jérôme Rousseau ISBN 0773532269 978-0773532267

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Product details: 

ISBN 10: 0773532269

ISBN 13: 978-0773532267

Author:  Jérôme Rousseau

Human societies are characterized by complex and varied social systems that change through time due to communication and negotiation. Jérôme Rousseau makes cognitive complexity his starting point in an innovative study of how and why human societies evolve. The focus of Rousseau’s enquiry is “middle-range” societies – a vast category between hunter-gatherers and states. Breaking away from traditional analyses of social evolution as a response to ecological constraints, he shows that social systems are maintained and transformed through self-interest and suggests that conflicts about sharing generate social transformations that result in inequality and increasingly encompassing socio-political structures. Rethinking Social Evolution is a wide-ranging exploration of how language and increased cognitive abilities constitute the motor of social evolution. Drawing on a wide range of ethnographic case studies, Rousseau offers a better understanding of how modern societies are the result of choices by people who both collaborate and compete.

Table of contents: 

• Concepts and Issues in Social Evolution

• Equality and Autonomy among Hunter-gatherers

• From Immediate- to Delayed-Return Systems: The Emergence of Middle-Range Societies

• Structures of Order at the Domestic Level

• Societies with Increased Socio-economic Differentiation

• Emergent Properties of Complex Middle-Range Societies

• The Process of Social Evolution

• Conclusion

• Glossary

• Notes

• References

• Index

People also search for:

Concepts and Issues in Social Evolution

Equality and Autonomy among Hunter-Gatherers

Structures of Order at the Domestic Level

Societies with Increased Socio-economic Differentiation

Tags: Jérôme Rousseau, Rethinking Social Evolution, Perspective from Middle, Range Societies