Front cover image for The principles of social evolution

The principles of social evolution

The evolution of society is one of the central problems of social anthropology, for which Professor Hallpike's latest book proposes an entirely novel solution.
Print Book, English, 1988
Clarendon Press ; Oxford University Press, Oxford [England], New York, 1988
xi, 412 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm
9780198275961, 9780198272656, 019827596X, 0198272650
17727371
Part 1 Introduction: a challenge evaded; the problem defined; social structure, causality and the individual. Part 2 Darwinism and social evolution: society and organism; the search for the "basic building blocks" of culture; inheritance and variation; competition and co-operation; adaptation in biological and social evolution. Part 3 The survival of the mediocre; the survival of the fittest; thought and adaptation; from ascriptive to functional organization. Part 4 Environmental determinism and social variability: adaptationism as environmental determinism; the cross-cultural evidence; two types of pastoral society; East Cushitic societies and ecologies. Part 5 The direction of evolution: the emergence of an East Cushitic state; the roots of authority; societal size; the emergence of the state; the rationalization of society; the role of the environment and technology in evolution. Part 6 Core principles: the nature of core principles; Chinese society; Indo-European society; conclusions.