Genes, Memes and Human History: Darwinian Archaeology and Cultural Evolution - Couverture rigide

Shennan, Stephen

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0500051186 ISBN 13 : 9780500051184

Editeur : Thames & Hudson Ltd, 2002

Synopsis

What is the history of human populations? How are cultural traditions maintained and changed over time? Why did people destroy their environments in the past and were they ever conservationists? What led to the emergence of marked social inequalities? These are some of the questions that this text addresses and answers, in an application of neo-Darwinian evolutionary ideas to the human past. Stephen Shennan opens with the study of human behaviour, as acted upon by natural selection, and goes on to demonstrate that the same ideas can be applied to human societies, not just through the genes but through what Richard Dawkins has called "memes", units of cultural information which are passed on in our second inheritance system, culture. The book ranges from life history theory to game theory, and from the origins of farming to the collapse of societies.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Stephen Shennan is Professor of Theoretical Archaeology and Director of the AHRB Centre for the Evolutionary Analysis of Culture at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. Among his previous books are Archaeological Approaches to Cultural Identity and The Archaeology of Human Ancestry.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Thames & Hudson Ltd
• Date d'édition: 2002
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0500051186
• ISBN 13: 9780500051184
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 304
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible