Rethinking Social Evolution: The Perspective from Middle-Range Societies - Softcover

Rousseau, Jérôme

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0773532269 ISBN 13: 9780773532267

Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2007

Synopsis

Human societies are characterized by complex and varied social systems that change through time due to communication and negotiation. Jerome 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.

About this title

Review

"Rousseau's formulation and analysis of a classic problem in anthropology and political philosophy is substantial and distinctive, bringing together an impressively wide range of ethnographic material." Robert Winzeler, anthropology, University of Nevada

About the Author

Je ro me Rousseau is professor, anthropology, McGill University, and the author of several books, including Central Borneo: Ethnic Identity and Social Life in a Stratified Society.

Edition details

• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0773532269
• ISBN 13: 9780773532267
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 304