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"Handbook on Evolution and Society" brings together original
chapters by prominent scholars who have been instrumental in the
revival of evolutionary theorizing and research in the social
sciences over the last twenty-five years. Previously unpublished
essays provide up-to-date, critical surveys of recent research and
key debates. The contributors discuss early challenges posed by
sociobiology, the rise of evolutionary psychology, the more
conflicted response of evolutionary sociology to sociobiology, and
evolutionary psychology. Chapters address the application and
limitations of Darwinian ideas in the social sciences. Prominent
authors come from a variety of disciplines in ecology, biology,
primatology, psychology, sociology, and the humanities. The most
comprehensive resource available, this vital collection
demonstrates to scholars and students the new ways in which
evolutionary approaches, ultimately derived from biology, are
influencing the diverse social sciences and humanities.
Handbook on Evolution and Society brings together original chapters
by prominent scholars who have been instrumental in the revival of
evolutionary theorizing and research in the social sciences over
the last twenty-five years. Previously unpublished essays provide
up-to-date, critical surveys of recent research and key debates.
The contributors discuss early challenges posed by sociobiology,
the rise of evolutionary psychology, the more conflicted response
of evolutionary sociology to sociobiology, and evolutionary
psychology. Chapters address the application and limitations of
Darwinian ideas in the social sciences. Prominent authors come from
a variety of disciplines in ecology, biology, primatology,
psychology, sociology, and the humanities. The most comprehensive
resource available, this vital collection demonstrates to scholars
and students the new ways in which evolutionary approaches,
ultimately derived from biology, are influencing the diverse social
sciences and humanities.
Kinship, religion, and economy were not natural to humans, nor to
species of apes that had to survive on the African savanna. Society
from its very beginnings involved an uneasy necessity that often
stood in conflict with humans ape ancestry; these tensions only
grew along with later, more complex eventually colossal
sociocultural systems. The ape in us was not extinguished, nor
obviated, by culture; indeed, our ancestry continues to place
pressures on individuals and their sociocultural creations. Not
just an exercise in history, this pathbreaking book dispels many
myths about the beginning of society to gain new understandings of
the many pressures on societies today.Vividly written for scholars
and students alike.
Kinship, religion, and economy were not natural to humans, nor to
species of apes that had to survive on the African savanna. Society
from its very beginnings involved an uneasy necessity that often
stood in conflict with humans ape ancestry; these tensions only
grew along with later, more complex eventually colossal
sociocultural systems. The ape in us was not extinguished, nor
obviated, by culture; indeed, our ancestry continues to place
pressures on individuals and their sociocultural creations. Not
just an exercise in history, this pathbreaking book dispels many
myths about the beginning of society to gain new understandings of
the many pressures on societies today.Vividly written for scholars
and students alike.
Throughout history humans have been fascinated with incest.
Stories, fables, literature, philosophers, church officials, and
scientists have explored this mysterious topic. The taboo is
critical to human survival, as incest threatens the species and
patterns of human social organization. Drawing upon the rich legacy
of theory, empirical data, and speculation about the origins of the
incest taboo, this book develops a new explanation for not only the
emergence of the taboo in hominid and human evolutionary history
but also for the varying strength of the taboo for the incestuous
dyads of the nuclear family, the different rates of incest of these
dyads, and the dramatic differences of the psychological pathology
of incest on its younger victims. Synthesizing findings from
biology, sociobiology, neurology, primatology, clinical psychology,
anthropology, and sociology, the authors weave together a scenario
of how natural selection initially generated mechanisms of sexual
avoidance; and then, as the nuclear family emerged in hominid and
human evolution, how sociocultural selection led to the development
of the incest taboo.
Throughout history humans have been fascinated with incest.
Stories, fables, literature, philosophers, church officials, and
scientists have explored this mysterious topic. The taboo is
critical to human survival, as incest threatens the species and
patterns of human social organization. Drawing upon the rich legacy
of theory, empirical data, and speculation about the origins of the
incest taboo, this book develops a new explanation for not only the
emergence of the taboo in hominid and human evolutionary history
but also for the varying strength of the taboo for the incestuous
dyads of the nuclear family, the different rates of incest of these
dyads, and the dramatic differences of the psychological pathology
of incest on its younger victims. Synthesizing findings from
biology, sociobiology, neurology, primatology, clinical psychology,
anthropology, and sociology, the authors weave together a scenario
of how natural selection initially generated mechanisms of sexual
avoidance; and then, as the nuclear family emerged in hominid and
human evolution, how sociocultural selection led to the development
of the incest taboo.
Written by leading theorists and empirical researchers, this book
presents new ways of addressing the old question: Why did religion
first emerge and then continue to evolve in all human societies?
The authors of the book-each with a different background across the
social sciences and humanities-assimilate conceptual leads and
empirical findings from anthropology, evolutionary biology,
evolutionary sociology, neurology, primate behavioral studies,
explanations of human interaction and group dynamics, and a wide
range of religious scholarship to construct a deeper and more
powerful explanation of the origins and subsequent evolutionary
development of religions than can currently be found in what is now
vast literature. While explaining religion has been a central
question in many disciplines for a long time, this book draws upon
a much wider array of literature to develop a robust and
cross-disciplinary analysis of religion. The book remains true to
its subtitle by emphasizing an array of both biological and
sociocultural forms of selection dynamics that are fundamental to
explaining religion as a universal institution in human societies.
In addition to Darwinian selection, which can explain the biology
and neurology of religion, the book outlines a set of four
additional types of sociocultural natural selection that can fill
out the explanation of why religion first emerged as an
institutional system in human societies, and why it has continued
to evolve over the last 300,000 years of societal evolution. These
sociocultural forms of natural selection are labeled by the names
of the early sociologists who first emphasized them, and they can
be seen as a necessary supplement to the type of natural selection
theorized by Charles Darwin. Explanations of religion that remain
in the shadow cast by Darwin's great insights will, it is argued,
remain narrow and incomplete when explaining a robust sociocultural
phenomenon like religion.
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Emile Durkheim and the Birth of the Gods - Clans, Incest, Totems, Phratries, Hordes, Mana, Taboos, Corroborees, Sodalities, Menstrual Blood, Apes, Churingas, Cairns, and Other Mysterious Things (Hardcover)
Alexandra Maryanski
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R5,640
Discovery Miles 56 400
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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The Birth of the Gods is dedicated to Durkheim's effort to
understand the basis of social integration. Unlike most social
scientists, then and now, Durkheim concluded that humans are
naturally more individualistic than collectivistic, that the primal
social unit for humans is the macro-level unit ('the horde'),
rather than the family, and that social cohesion is easily
disrupted by human self-interest. Hence, for Durkheim, one of the
"gravest" problems facing sociology is how to mold these human
proclivities to serve the collective good. The analysis of
elementary religions, Durkheim believed, would allow social
scientists to see the fundamental basis of solidarity in human
societies, built around collective representations, totems marking
sacred forces, and emotion-arousing rituals directed at these
totems. The first half of the book traces the key influences and
events that led Durkheim to embrace such novel generalizations. The
second part makes a significant contribution to sociological theory
with an analysis that essentially "tests" Durkheim's core
assumptions using cladistic analysis, social network tools and
theory, and data on humans closest living relatives-the great apes.
Maryanski marshals hard data from primatology, paleontology,
archaeology, genetics, and neuroscience that enlightens and,
surprisingly, confirms many of Durkheim's speculations. These data
show that integration among both humans and great apes is not so
much group or kin oriented, per se, but orientation to a community
standing outside each individual that includes a sense of self, but
also encompassing a cognitive awareness of a "sense of community"
or a connectedness that transcends sensory reality and concrete
social relations. This "community complex," as Maryanski terms it,
is what Durkheim was beginning to see, although he did not have the
data to buttress his arguments as Maryanski is able to do.
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Emile Durkheim and the Birth of the Gods - Clans, Incest, Totems, Phratries, Hordes, Mana, Taboos, Corroborees, Sodalities, Menstrual Blood, Apes, Churingas, Cairns, and Other Mysterious Things (Paperback)
Alexandra Maryanski
|
R1,209
Discovery Miles 12 090
|
Ships in 12 - 17 working days
|
The Birth of the Gods is dedicated to Durkheim's effort to
understand the basis of social integration. Unlike most social
scientists, then and now, Durkheim concluded that humans are
naturally more individualistic than collectivistic, that the primal
social unit for humans is the macro-level unit ('the horde'),
rather than the family, and that social cohesion is easily
disrupted by human self-interest. Hence, for Durkheim, one of the
"gravest" problems facing sociology is how to mold these human
proclivities to serve the collective good. The analysis of
elementary religions, Durkheim believed, would allow social
scientists to see the fundamental basis of solidarity in human
societies, built around collective representations, totems marking
sacred forces, and emotion-arousing rituals directed at these
totems. The first half of the book traces the key influences and
events that led Durkheim to embrace such novel generalizations. The
second part makes a significant contribution to sociological theory
with an analysis that essentially "tests" Durkheim's core
assumptions using cladistic analysis, social network tools and
theory, and data on humans closest living relatives-the great apes.
Maryanski marshals hard data from primatology, paleontology,
archaeology, genetics, and neuroscience that enlightens and,
surprisingly, confirms many of Durkheim's speculations. These data
show that integration among both humans and great apes is not so
much group or kin oriented, per se, but orientation to a community
standing outside each individual that includes a sense of self, but
also encompassing a cognitive awareness of a "sense of community"
or a connectedness that transcends sensory reality and concrete
social relations. This "community complex," as Maryanski terms it,
is what Durkheim was beginning to see, although he did not have the
data to buttress his arguments as Maryanski is able to do.
Written by leading theorists and empirical researchers, this book
presents new ways of addressing the old question: Why did religion
first emerge and then continue to evolve in all human societies?
The authors of the book-each with a different background across the
social sciences and humanities-assimilate conceptual leads and
empirical findings from anthropology, evolutionary biology,
evolutionary sociology, neurology, primate behavioral studies,
explanations of human interaction and group dynamics, and a wide
range of religious scholarship to construct a deeper and more
powerful explanation of the origins and subsequent evolutionary
development of religions than can currently be found in what is now
vast literature. While explaining religion has been a central
question in many disciplines for a long time, this book draws upon
a much wider array of literature to develop a robust and
cross-disciplinary analysis of religion. The book remains true to
its subtitle by emphasizing an array of both biological and
sociocultural forms of selection dynamics that are fundamental to
explaining religion as a universal institution in human societies.
In addition to Darwinian selection, which can explain the biology
and neurology of religion, the book outlines a set of four
additional types of sociocultural natural selection that can fill
out the explanation of why religion first emerged as an
institutional system in human societies, and why it has continued
to evolve over the last 300,000 years of societal evolution. These
sociocultural forms of natural selection are labeled by the names
of the early sociologists who first emphasized them, and they can
be seen as a necessary supplement to the type of natural selection
theorized by Charles Darwin. Explanations of religion that remain
in the shadow cast by Darwin's great insights will, it is argued,
remain narrow and incomplete when explaining a robust sociocultural
phenomenon like religion.
A wide-ranging and provocative new interpretation of the biological
foundations of sociocultural evolution, this book is a challenge
both to the extremes of sociobiology and to traditional
sociological assumptions about human nature and modern societies.
The authors' central argument revolves around a re-analysis of
human nature as it evolved over millions of years of primate
history and a reassessment of societal evolution in light of the
primate legacy of humans. They convincingly demonstrate that
sociobiology overemphasizes selection at the genic level and
underemphasizes the emergent dynamics of social structure and
culture, that sociological thought assumes humans are more social
than is warranted by the empirical evidence on primates, and that
critiques of modern social forms are largely incorrect and
misguided. The authors assert that traditional sociological
theories of human nature and society do not pay sufficient
attention to the evolution of 'big-brained hominoids,' resulting in
assumptions about humans' propensity for 'groupness' that go
against the record of primate evolution. When this record is
analyzed in detail, and is supplemented by a review of the social
structures of contemporary apes and the basic typrs of human
societies (hunter-gathering, horticultural, agrarian, and
industrial), commonplace criticisms about the de-humanizing effects
of industrial society appear overdrawn, if not downright incorrect.
The book concludes that the mistakes in contemporary social theory
- as well as much of general social commentary - stem from a
failure to analyze humans as 'big-brained' apes with certain
phylogenetic tendencies. This failure is usually coupled with a
willingness to romanticize societies of the past, notably
horticultural and agrarian systems. If the evolutionary record and
data on contemporary primates are taken seriously, the modern
industrial system is seen as far more compatible with humans'
primate legacy than either horticultural or agrarian systems. This
legacy clearly indicates that humans are far more individualistic
than most social theory assumes and that humans definitely prefer
situations allowing autonomy, freedom, and choice.
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