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What is a society in the case of multilevel societies?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 April 2025

Cyril C. Grueter Open the ORCID record for Cyril C. Grueter [Opens in a new window]  and
Larissa Swedell
Cyril C. Grueter*
Affiliation:
School of Human Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia cyril.grueter@uwa.edu.au www.cyrilgrueter.net International Centre of Biodiversity and Primate Conservation, Dali University, Dali, Yunnan, China
Larissa Swedell
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Queens College, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA Larissa.Swedell@qc.cuny.edu www.larissaswedell.net Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA New York Consortium in Evolutionary Primatology, New York, NY, USA
*
*Corresponding author.
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Abstract

We expand on Moffett's discussion of societies in the context of multilevel social systems, for which Moffett proposes the core unit to constitute a society. Moffett's definition of a society, however, suggests that it is more parsimonious to assign this label to the upper (band) level. An understanding of multilevel systems is critical for informing discussions about what a society is.

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Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 48 , 2025 , e63
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press

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