The Evolution of Human Co-operation: Ritual and Social Complexity in Stateless Societies - Hardcover

Stanish, Charles

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1107180554 ISBN 13: 9781107180550

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2017

Synopsis

How do people living in small groups without money, markets, police and rigid social classes develop norms of economic and social cooperation that are sustainable over time? This book addresses this fundamental question and explains the origin, structure and spread of stateless societies. Using insights from game theory, ethnography and archaeology, Stanish shows how ritual - broadly defined - is the key. Ritual practices encode elaborate rules of behavior and are ingenious mechanisms of organizing society in the absence of coercive states. As well as asking why and how people choose to co-operate, Stanish also provides the theoretical framework to understand this collective action problem. He goes on to highlight the evolution of cooperation with ethnographic and archaeological data from around of the world. Merging evolutionary game theory concepts with cultural evolutionary theory, this book will appeal to those seeking a transdisciplinary approach to one of the greatest problems in human evolution.

About this title

Book Description:

Using insights from game theory, ethnography and archaeology, Stanish investigates how people living in small groups without money, markets or police develop sustainable norms of economic and social cooperation. He provides the theoretical framework and goes on to highlight the evolution of cooperation with ethnographic and archaeological data.

About the Author:

Charles Stanish is Director Emeritus of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology and Professor of Anthropology at University of California, Los Angeles. Author of numerous articles and several books including Ancient Titicaca (2003) and Ancient Andean Political Economy (1992), he specializes in the evolution of co-operation in the premodern world and has conducted extensive fieldwork throughout South America in Peru, Bolivia and Chile.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1107180554
• ISBN 13: 9781107180550
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 348