Human Evolution and the Origins of Hierarchies
The State of Nature

Benoît Dubreuil offers a naturalist account of the creation and destruction of hierarchies in human evolution.

Benoît Dubreuil (Author)

9781107670365, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 25 July 2013

288 pages, 13 b/w illus. 5 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.39 kg

In this book, Benoît Dubreuil explores the creation and destruction of hierarchies in human evolution. Combining the methods of archaeology, anthropology, cognitive neuroscience and primatology, he offers a natural history of hierarchies from the point of view of both cultural and biological evolution. This volume explains why dominance hierarchies typical of primate societies disappeared in the human lineage and why the emergence of large-scale societies during the Neolithic period implied increased social differentiation, the creation of status hierarchies, and, eventually, political centralisation.

Introduction
1. A passion for equality?
2. Reversing dominance hierarchies
3. Homo sapiens in perspective
4. Hierarchy without the state
5. The origins of the state
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Political science & theory [JPA], Anthropology [JHM], Social & political philosophy [HPS], Prehistoric archaeology [HDDA]