The deep origins of society
An assessment of E.O. Wilson’s Genesis
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7822675 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Aexandra Maryanski (0009-0001-3273-6149, Institute for Theoretical Social Science, Santa Barbara, USA), Jonathan H Turner (0000-0002-1299-2540), Alexandra Maryanski (Institute for Theoretical Social Science, Santa Barbara, USA) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 34 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 536-551 |
| Publication date | 2019-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0268-5809 • E-ISSN: 1461-7242 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0268580919870454 |
| OpenAlex | W2973343574 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 25 |
E.O. Wilson’s Genesis: The Deep Origins of Societies is one of a series of short books where the author has tried to explain human societies using ideas and concepts from biology. While Wilson is to be lauded for his recent efforts to reintroduce the notions of group selection and multilevel selection, he still sustains an emphasis on only Darwinian selection and reveals a bias toward seeing selection for groups as a result of selection on individuals (as is the case for insects), perhaps entangled with selection on groups. The effort to conceive of human societies as an example of eusocieties of social insects ignores most of the sociological works on human and societal evolution; and as a result, the book is not convincing in its argument. Despite the pleasant writing style, Wilson and other biologists writing about human societies need to engage the almost 200 years of sociological work devoted to understanding the evolution of human societies
Biology · Darwinism · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Group selection · Political science · Politics · Social Darwinism · Social science · Sociology · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior · History · Law · Philosophy · Plant and animal studies
On the Origins of Human Emotions
Rethinking the Theoretical Foundation of Sociobiology
The Evolution of Reciprocal Altruism
Face to Face
Tradition over trend
Intergroup conflicts among chimpanzees in Taï National Park
The New Evolutionary Sociology
African ape social structure
Gorilla society
The Social Cage
Émile Durkheim and the Birth of the Gods
Human emotions
The Emergence and Evolution of Religion
The Archaeology of Human Ancestry
Historical Dynamics
The Frequency of Warfare
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,33 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2022 (3) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |