Genesis

The Deep Origin of Societies

• Author(s): Edward O. Wilson,
• Publisher: Allen Lane
• Pages: 153
• ISBN_10: 0241388597
  ISBN_13: 9780241388594
  
• Language: en
• Categories: Psychology / Social Psychology , Psychology / Evolutionary Psychology , Science / Life Sciences / Evolution , Science / Life Sciences / Genetics & Genomics , Science / Life Sciences / Zoology / Ethology (Animal Behavior) , Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural & Social , Social Science / Sociology / General , Social Science / Social Classes & Economic Disparity ,

Description:... Asserting that religious creeds and philosophical questions can be reduced to purely genetic and evolutionary components, and that the human body and mind have a physical base obedience to the laws of physics and chemistry, "Genesis" demonstrates that the only way for us to fully understand human behaviour is to study the evolutionary histories of nonhuman species. Of these, Wilson demonstrates that at least seventeen, among them the African naked mole rat and the sponge-dwelling shrimp, have been found to have advanced societies based on altruism and cooperation. Whether writing about midges who 'dance about like acrobats' or schools of anchovies who protectively huddle 'to appear like a gigantic fish', or proposing that human society owes a debt of gratitude to 'postmenopausal grandmothers' and 'childless homosexuals', "Genesis" is a pithy yet pathbreaking work of evolutionary theory filled with the lyrical biological and humanistic observations for which Wilson is known.