The Evolution of Human Societies: From Foraging Group to Agrarian State

by Timothy Earle and Allen W. Johnson

Book Overview

By combining an original thesis and a representative body of ethnographic data, this ambitious work seeks to describe and explain the growth in complexity of human societies.

Its emphasis is on the causes, mechanisms, and patterns of cultural evolution, which the authors explain in terms of a coherent theory of political economy--defined as the mobilization and exchange of goods and services between families. The authors show that the interconnected...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0804740321
• ISBN13: 9780804740326
• Release Date: December 2000
• Publisher: Stanford University Press
• Length: 456 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Interested in explanations for social complexity?

This book is a must read for anyone who wants to understand how and why some societies have grown in complexity over time. Written from a materialist perspective, the authors have developed an elegant thesis for explaining the "causes, mechanisms, and patterns of cultural evolution. " This book has become a standard in many anthropology classes.