Human Evolution and the Origins of Hierarchies
Human Evolution and the Origins of Hierarchies
The State of Nature
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In this book, Benoît Dubreuil explores the creation and destruction of hierarchies in human evolution. Combining the methods of archaeology, anthropology, cognitive neuroscience and primatology, he offers a natural history of hierarchies from the point of view of both cultural and biological evolution. This volume explains why dominance hierarchies typical of primate societies disappeared in the human lineage and why the emergence of large-scale societies during the Neolithic period implied increased social differentiation, the creation of status hierarchies, and, eventually, political centralisation.
- Uses the scientific knowledge of the 21st century to address one of the most classical questions in political theory - the origins of the state
- Explains how the evolution of the hominin's brain and behaviour has led to the disruption of ape-like dominance hierarchies
- Explains why, despite our ability for cooperation, we often become prisoners of unequal and exploitative social arrangements
Product details
November 2010Hardback
9780521769488
288 pages
229 × 152 × 17 mm
0.52kg
13 b/w illus. 5 tables
Available
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- 1. A passion for equality?
- 2. Reversing dominance hierarchies
- 3. Homo sapiens in perspective
- 4. Hierarchy without the state
- 5. The origins of the state
- Conclusion.
