A Sociology of Humankind: How We Are Formed by Culture, Cooperation, and Conflict (Routledge Advances in Sociology)

Based upon the interdependencies of human beings as we cooperate and conflict with each other, how we share information, and how culture evolves, this book proposes a sociology of humanity covering three hundred millennia. Grounded in empirical findings from archaeology, history, lab experiments, and field studies – supplemented for precision with computational network models of cultural evolution, cooperation, influence, cohesion, warfare, power, social balance, and inequality – this is the first attempt at encompassing sociology of humankind. Informed by the theory of cultural evolution, it extends the notion that cultural evolution connects humans of all times in a giant sociocultural network, thereby yielding coherence between a great many empirical findings. It will therefore appeal to scholars of sociology and anthropology with interests in historical sociology, cultural evolution, and social theory. Cover Endrosements Page Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of Figures Acknowledgments 1 Introduction 1.1 Cultural Dynamics 1.2 Goals and Means 1.2.1 Patterns, Principles, and Models 1.3 Cultural Evolution: A Reprise 1.3.1 Combination 1.3.2 Selection 1.3.3 Environment 2 Forager Societies 2.1 Dispersion 2.2 Networks 2.3 Practices and Culture 3 Cooperation 3.1 Shared Intentionality 3.2 Collective Action 3.3 The Evolution of Cooperation 3.4 Cooperation with Strangers 3.5 Dyadic Cooperation 3.6 Thick Reputations 4 Agricultural Societies 4.1 Consequences of Agriculture 4.2 Social Inequality 4.3 Moralistic Religions 4.4 America and Africa 4.5 Cooperation Revisited 4.6 Cultural Evolution and Complexity 4.7 Environment, Culture, and Genes 5 Conflict 5.1 Patterns and Principles 5.1.1 Constraint 5.1.2 Collective Conflict 5.1.3 Conflicts Between Three or More Factions 5.2 Wars and Institutions 5.3 Protests and Revolts 6 Imperialism and Industrialization 6.1 Europe's Conquests 6.2 Warfare and Bureaucracy 6.3 Nationalism 6.4 Industrial Revolution 6.5 Organizations 6.6 Industrial Society and its Tensions 6.7 Imperialism and Nationalism 6.8 The Whole World at War 6.9 Consequences of the World Wars 6.10 Innovation by Teams 6.11 Globalization and Rising Inequality 6.12 Protests, Revolts, and Wars Revisited 6.13 Environmental Degradation and New Pandemics 7 Digital Society 7.1 (Self)Deception and Radicalization 7.2 Polarization and Democracy 8 Models 8.1 Social Influence and Cohesion 8.1.1 Influence 8.1.2 Polarization 8.1.3 Social Cohesion 8.1.4 Power Centrality 8.1.5 Power in Inter-Polity Dynamics 8.2 Cooperation for Public Goods 8.2.1 Social Balance 8.3 Cultural Evolution 8.3.1 Combination 8.3.2 Selection 8.3.3 Environment 8.3.4 Generalizations 8.4 Appendix 9 Conclusions Glossary Bibliography Index Based upon the interdependencies of human beings as we cooperate and conflict with each other, how we share information, and how culture evolves, this book proposes a sociology of humanity covering three hundred millennia. Grounded in empirical findings from archaeology, history, lab-experiments and field studies supplemented for precision with computational network models of cultural evolution, cooperation, influence, cohesion, warfare, power, social balance and inequality this is the first attempt at an encompassing sociology of humankind. Informed by the the theory of cultural evolution, it extends the notion that cultural evolution connects all humans of all times in a giant sociocultural network, thereby yielding coherence between a great many empirical findings. It will therefore appeal to scholars of sociology and anthropology with interests in historical sociology, cultural evolution and social theory. Grounded in empirical findings from archaeology, history, lab-experiments and field studies – and supplemented with computational network models – this book extends the theory of cultural evolution, proposing a sociology of humankind that connects all people throughout history in a giant socio-cultural network spanning 300 millennia