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From Experiential-based to Relational-based Forms of Social Organization: A Major Transition in the Evolution of Homo sapiens

Dwight Read

in Social Brain, Distributed Mind

The evolutionary trajectory from non-human to human forms of social organization involves change from experiential- to relational-based systems of social interaction. Social organization derived from ... More

The evolutionary trajectory from non-human to human forms of social organization involves change from experiential- to relational-based systems of social interaction. Social organization derived from biologically and experientially grounded social interaction reached a hiatus with the great apes due to an expansion of individualization of behaviour. The hiatus ended with the introduction of relational-based social interaction, culminating in social organization based on cultural kinship. This evolutionary trajectory links biological origins to cultural outcomes and makes evident the centrality of distributed forms of information for both the boundary and internal structure of human societies as these evolved from prior forms of social organization.Less

Ancestral Human Society

Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis

in A Cooperative Species: Human Reciprocity and Its Evolution

This chapter examines the notion that humans became cooperative because in our ancestral environments we interacted frequently with the same group of close kin, among whom tit-for-tat and other ... More

This chapter examines the notion that humans became cooperative because in our ancestral environments we interacted frequently with the same group of close kin, among whom tit-for-tat and other strategies consistent with reciprocal altruism were sufficient to support cooperative outcomes. To this end, the chapter reviews the available archaeological and ethnographic evidence suggesting that most humans had frequent contact with a substantial number of individuals beyond the immediate family despite the existence of isolated groups. This conclusion is consistent with data on the extent of genetic differentiation among ethnographic foragers. The chapter then considers evidence that ancestral humans engaged in frequent and exceptionally lethal intergroup conflicts, as well as data implying that social order in prestate small-scale societies was sustained by a process of coordinated peer pressures and punishment. It shows that prehistoric human society was a social and natural environment in which group competition could have given rise to altruistic behaviors.Less

Foundations of Cooperation

Kevin N. Laland

in Darwin's Unfinished Symphony

This chapter reveals that there is strong evidence that the large-scale cooperation observed solely in human societies arises because of our uniquely potent capacities for social learning, imitation, ... More

This chapter reveals that there is strong evidence that the large-scale cooperation observed solely in human societies arises because of our uniquely potent capacities for social learning, imitation, and teaching, combined with the coevolutionary feedbacks that these capabilities have generated on the human mind. Culture took human populations down evolutionary pathways not available to noncultural species, either by creating conditions that promoted established cooperative mechanisms, such as indirect reciprocity and mutualism; or by generating novel cooperative mechanisms not seen in other taxa, such as cultural group selection. In the process, gene–culture coevolution seemingly generated an evolved psychology, comprising an enhanced ability and motivation to learn, teach, communicate through language, imitate, and emulate, as well as predispositions to docility, social tolerance, and the sharing of goals, intentions, and attention. The chapter concludes that this evolved psychology is entirely different from that observed in any other animal, or that could have evolved through genes alone.Less

Introduction: The Adaptive Significance of Friendship

Daniel J. Hruschka

in Friendship: Development, Ecology, and Evolution of a Relationship

The purpose of this chapter is twofold. First, it brings to the foreground the unique ways that friendships, defined here as long-term relationships of mutual affection and support, have helped ... More

The purpose of this chapter is twofold. First, it brings to the foreground the unique ways that friendships, defined here as long-term relationships of mutual affection and support, have helped people deal with the struggles of daily life in a wide range of human societies. Depending on the culture, friends share food when it is scarce, provide backup during aggressive disputes, lend a hand in planting and harvesting, and open avenues of exchange across otherwise indifferent or hostile social groups. Behavior among friends is not necessarily regulated in the same way as behavior in other relationships, such as those among biological kin or mates. The chapter argues that the help provided by friends is regulated by a system based on mutual goodwill that motivates friends to help each other in times of need.Less

Introduction

Aniruddh D. Patel

in Music, Language, and the Brain

According to Nettl in 2000, both language and music, regardless of the cultural aspects that are absent within a particular society such as perhaps the notion of numbers and counting, serve as traits ... More

According to Nettl in 2000, both language and music, regardless of the cultural aspects that are absent within a particular society such as perhaps the notion of numbers and counting, serve as traits that define every human society. While both language and music involve complex sequences of sound, cognitive science has not yet been able to fully explore such domains, and researchers today from various fields of expertise are now showing interest towards this interdisciplinary enterprise. This is because, in contrast to how examining the brains and behavior of animals may be simplified by the similarities between our various senses and experiences, human beings have a unique capability of making sense of different sounds. As humans possess two systems that are able to aid in processing complex acoustic sequences into distinct elements, cognitive science is provided with the opportunity to compare and contrast language and music to further understand such mechanisms.Less

Henry of Ghent—Self-Love and Inclusion

M. S. KEMPSHALL

in The Common Good in Late Medieval Political Thought

This chapter examines Henry of Ghent's theology and writing. It notes that when Henry does consider the common good of human society in abstract terms, it is in this context, not of metaphysics, but ... More

This chapter examines Henry of Ghent's theology and writing. It notes that when Henry does consider the common good of human society in abstract terms, it is in this context, not of metaphysics, but of love. It explains that love is a principle which both Aristotle and Augustine had made central to the operation of a political community. It reasons that in the discussions of the common good, scholastic theologians are quick to examine the relationship between love for one's own good and love for the good of the community. It reports that as far as everything other than God is concerned, Henry suggests that an intellectual creature has a greater love for itself. It reasons that an individual loves himself in the first instance and his neighbor only by extension in that he wills good for himself before he wills good for someone else.Less

Mother Right On the Continent

Eller Cynthia

in Gentlemen and Amazons: The Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory, 1861-1900

This chapter looks at the spread of the matriarchal myth in Europe, examining how the myth gained popularity in Europe, specifically in Germany, and explains the contributions of German ethnology to ... More

This chapter looks at the spread of the matriarchal myth in Europe, examining how the myth gained popularity in Europe, specifically in Germany, and explains the contributions of German ethnology to the myth and studying Julius Lippert's version of it. It then identifies the challenges made to Lippert's assertion that the earliest human societies were sexually promiscuous. The chapter also covers the notions of property in relation to sex and marriage, the notions of gender that can be found within the matriarchal myth, the concept of the Aryan mother, and the late participants in the matriarchal debate.Less

The Authority of Distant Antiquity

Paul U. Unschuld

in What Is Medicine?: Western and Eastern Approaches to Healing

This chapter provides an overview on a new world view, Neo-Confucianism, developed by philosophers of that era. This view of human society and of nature offered itself as a new model image for ... More

This chapter provides an overview on a new world view, Neo-Confucianism, developed by philosophers of that era. This view of human society and of nature offered itself as a new model image for medicine. Neo-Confucianism significantly affected medicine but the effects remained superficial. They joined Confucian-Legalistic medicine with the system of pharmacy that had been established under Daoism. The image from the classic Yellow Thearch in the Han era was once again clearly reaffirmed in the Song era. Confucianism was expanded and newly interpreted yet progress always cited the supposed or real authorities of distant antiquity that the new views were made to resemble. Physicians found a real authority from the Han era to whom they could trace their innovations. The innovations were not only due to the changed social philosophy but marginal structural changes might also have made a contribution.Less

The Gunpowder Revolution

John Landers

in The Field and the Forge: Population, Production, and Power in the Pre-industrial West

The introduction of gunpowder to warfare represented the beginning of the large-scale exploitation of chemical energy by human societies. The introduction of firearms to land warfare affected all ... More

The introduction of gunpowder to warfare represented the beginning of the large-scale exploitation of chemical energy by human societies. The introduction of firearms to land warfare affected all three mobile arms but the infantry most of all, because it radically shifted the relative power of distance and shock weapons in a historically unprecedented manner. In two centuries, gunpowder altered the battlefield beyond recognition as new troop types, tactics, and organisation hierarchies were introduced. The introduction of firearms was the most profound and far-reaching discontinuity in technological development because military hardware and organisation on land and sea were transformed, and the consequences stretched beyond the narrowly military sphere to the economic and financial foundations of the state.Less

The Sociologist—James Hughes and the Many Paths of Moral Enhancement

Nicholas Agar

in Humanity's End: Why We Should Reject Radical Enhancement

This chapter presents arguments contending that the precautionary approach advises against the creation of any sort of human–posthuman society, something which can be achieved by refusing to create ... More

This chapter presents arguments contending that the precautionary approach advises against the creation of any sort of human–posthuman society, something which can be achieved by refusing to create posthumans. This conclusion depends on a speculation about the moral beliefs of posthumans that is less optimistic than James Hughes’s vision of moral enhancement. The chapter defends a skeptical view of Hughes’s conception of moral enhancement, and argues that once posthumans come into existence, they may view humans as morally required to defer to them, sacrificing our interests to promote theirs. Thus, the path of radical enhancement for some humans significantly threatens the interests of other humans. Though it is not maintained that this outcome is, in any way, certain, it is a logical presupposition that a precautionary approach counsels against radical enhancement.Less

Geographies of Human Difference

in Placing the Enlightenment: Thinking Geographically about the Age of Reason

This chapter considers in particular the part played by knowledge in geography, formulating the central questions posed in the Enlightenment to do with human society, human difference, and human ... More

This chapter considers in particular the part played by knowledge in geography, formulating the central questions posed in the Enlightenment to do with human society, human difference, and human distribution. It argues that the Enlightenment Science of Man was in several crucial ways a Geography of Man. There can be no doubt that the human sciences in the Enlightenment depended on geographical knowledge for their origin and later refinement. Stadial thinking as a peculiarly Enlightenment form of historical explanation was dependent on geographical descriptions of human difference. Geographical information, in the form of travel accounts and “philosophico-physical geography”, as Johann Herder put it of Johann Reinhold Forster's work, provided “the reservoir of human experiments” in the human sciences. Geographical information—even admitting of the presence of the erroneous and the credulous—was the raw material “from which discerning philosophical historians drew much of their ‘experimental’ knowledge.”Less

Beyond the Pale: Joining the Society of Animals in Aristophanes, Herman Melville, and Louis-Ferdinand Céline

Mark Payne

in The Animal Part: Human and Other Animals in the Poetic Imagination

This chapter discusses a number of narrative texts where animals other than human beings live in social groups and communicate with one another as members of them. Before considering Aristophanes' ... More

This chapter discusses a number of narrative texts where animals other than human beings live in social groups and communicate with one another as members of them. Before considering Aristophanes' version of the animal society story pattern in Birds, it considers Aristotle's position on the nature of human and animal societies as a kind of counterpoint to the playwright's imaginative engagement with the topic. Aristotle's account of human society in the Politics views its achievements against the horizon of zoological life as a whole, and his famous assertion that the human being is “by nature a political animal” is best understood by comparing his account of what is distinctive about human society with his descriptions of the kinds of sociality exhibited by other animals.Less

Conclusion A Family Level Society

Allen Johnson

in Families of the Forest: The Matsigenka Indians of the Peruvian Amazon

This chapter summarizes the findings and restates the case for the Matsigenka Indians as a family level society. It explains that family level societies similar in their general characteristics to ... More

This chapter summarizes the findings and restates the case for the Matsigenka Indians as a family level society. It explains that family level societies similar in their general characteristics to the Matsigenka are a basic form of human society and they were the predominant form of human society for much of prehistory. It clarifies that the Matsigenka live in an extraordinarily complex, culturally constructed world that differs from tribal societies primarily in the flexibility allowed within its social structure and cultural beliefs for family autonomy in response to changing opportunities.Less

Ibn Khaldun and the Science of Society

Syed Farid Alatas

in Ibn Khaldun

Chapter 2 focuses on Ibn Khaldun’s ‘new science’. His approach was a positive rather than a normative one – the study of state and society as they are rather than as they should be. In this sense, he ... More

Chapter 2 focuses on Ibn Khaldun’s ‘new science’. His approach was a positive rather than a normative one – the study of state and society as they are rather than as they should be. In this sense, he departed from the dominant pattern of writings on state and society. Ibn Khaldun’s rationale for developing a new field of science is based on his critique of the conventional historical science of his time. That critique of conventional history and his argument for a new science to overcome its shortcomings are explained in detail, with emphasis on the key methodological aspects of the new science and its main features.Less

Biological Adaptation in Human Societies: A Basic Needs Approach

Peter A. Corning

in Holistic Darwinism: Synergy, Cybernetics, and the Bioeconomics of Evolution

This chapter proposes a more rigorous and systematic approach to the concept of adaptation that is based on basic needs. It applies the concept of biological adaptation specifically to human ... More

This chapter proposes a more rigorous and systematic approach to the concept of adaptation that is based on basic needs. It applies the concept of biological adaptation specifically to human societies and develops a detailed framework of fourteen basic needs that define the parameters of the survival/reproduction problem for humankind. This chapter suggests that the basic needs paradigm could provide an analytical tool for examining more closely the relationship between our social, economic, and political behaviors and institutions and their survival consequences, as well as providing a predictive tool of some value.Less

On Truth, Lies, and Bullshit

Harry Frankfurt

in The Philosophy of Deception

This chapter opens with a claim that the harm that lies do results from their interference with one's efforts to understand things as they truly are. Lies thrust one into an imaginary world that one ... More

This chapter opens with a claim that the harm that lies do results from their interference with one's efforts to understand things as they truly are. Lies thrust one into an imaginary world that one cannot live in or rely on. The chapter goes on to discuss Kant's and Montaigne's claim that lies undermine human society, arguing that Kant and Montaigne have gone too far: although it is true that lies can tear the social fabric apart, they can also knit it together. The discussion develops a personal take on the harm of the lie with a discussion of the poet Adrienne Rich. For Rich, the liar puts himself in a place of terrible loneliness: by hiding his mind from others, he perilously removes himself from human society.Less