Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior - Paperback

$81.00

Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior - Paperback

Name: Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior - Paperback
Brand: BooksCloud
SKU: 9780674006911
Price: 81.00 USD
Availability: InStock

by Christopher Boehm

$81.00

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by Christopher Boehm (Author)

Are humans by nature hierarchical or egalitarian? Hierarchy in the Forest addresses this question by examining the evolutionary origins of social and political behavior. Christopher Boehm, an anthropologist whose fieldwork has focused on the political arrangements of human and nonhuman primate groups, postulates that egalitarianism is in effect a hierarchy in which the weak combine forces to dominate the strong.

The political flexibility of our species is formidable: we can be quite egalitarian, we can be quite despotic. Hierarchy in the Forest traces the roots of these contradictory traits in chimpanzee, bonobo, gorilla, and early human societies. Boehm looks at the loose group structures of hunter-gatherers, then at tribal segmentation, and finally at present-day governments to see how these conflicting tendencies are reflected.

Hierarchy in the Forest claims new territory for biological anthropology and evolutionary biology by extending the domain of these sciences into a crucial aspect of human political and social behavior. This book will be a key document in the study of the evolutionary basis of genuine altruism.

Number of Pages: 304

Dimensions: 0.8 x 9.2 x 6.1 IN

Publication Date: November 02, 2001

ISBN	9780674006911
Author	Christopher Boehm
Publisher	Harvard University Press
Genre	Education
Format	Paperback
Published	November 2001
Language	ENG- English
Pages	304
Weight	1.0 lb
Target Audience	Adults
Print Size	Standard Print