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

598 Pages·2000·6.99 MB·English

by  Allen Johnson

THE EVOLUTION OF HUMAN SOCIETIES
Allen W. Johnson & Timothy Earle
The Evolution
of Human Societies
From Foraging Group
to Agrarian State
Second Edition
Dedicated to Marvin Harris and Marshall Sahlins For their inspiration and
disputation
Preface to the Second Edition
In the first edition of this work we attempted to synthesize the current
understanding of the processes whereby human societies grew (or did not
grow) in scale and complexity under a broad range of environmental
circumstances. Our joint experience of teaching courses in economic
anthropology and cultural ecology showed us the advantages of combining the
perspectives of ethnology and archaeology for a comprehensive theory
integrating both subjects. In order to do so, we had instinctively organized the
case materials in our course from small-scale mobile foragers to agrarian
states, as do many of our colleagues. We decided to make explicit the implicit
evolutionary theory in such an ordering from simple to complex, and this work
was born.
For this second edition, we have taken advantage of more than a decade
teaching with the first edition. Through their bold questioning and insights
drawn from their own learning and experience, our students have shown us
many ways to improve on the original, and for this we owe them a profound
debt of gratitude. As a result of their comments, and those of many of our
colleagues, we have completely rewritten the theoretical chapters, to
strengthen and improve the flow and clarity of the argument. We have also
reviewed all the cases and where possible, in consultation with experts, have
corrected errors and brought the cases up to date, often illuminating the ways
in which the basic processes of social evolution continue to operate to the
present time. We have also added a new ending chapter that links our
evolutionary argument to an account of how and why traditional societies like
those we discuss transform in our world of today.
In our preface to the first edition we noted a certain turning away from
social evolutionism in the anthropology of the time. The situation today is
different. A great many excellent works have been published dealing with
warfare, leadership, intensification, trust and cooperation, and many other
topics in ways that either are frankly evolutionist or at least are framed to be of
use to the evolutionist. In addition to this general climate of theoretical debate,
we have benefited from careful specific comments on parts or all of this work
by Jeanne Arnold, Robert Bettinger, Ben Campbell, Napoleon Chagnon,
Myron Cohen, Sam Coleman, Terence D'Altroy, Norma Diamond, Rada
Dyson-Hudson, Paul Ehrlich, Walter Goldschmidt, Daniel Gross, Raymond
Hames, William Irons, Patrick Kirch, Richard Lee, Sibel Kusimba, Cherry
Lowman, Mervin Meggitt, Mark Moberg, Philip Newman, John Olmsted,
Wendell Oswalt, Melanie Renfrew, Tawnya Sesi, Nazif Shahrani, Mariko
Tamanoi, David Hurst Thomas, Jan Weinpahl, Lynn White, Jr., Johannes
Wilbert, and Yun-xiang Yan. Amalie Orme drew the settlement pattern figures
and they reflect her creative input. Valued colleagues Roy Rappaport and
Annette Weiner, whose works have influenced our own, have died. We mourn
their passing and miss their thoughtful advice.

In preparing this revision we rediscovered the stimulation and new thinking
that comes with a collaboration across the subdisciplines. Archaeologists and
ethnologists, although they work with such different empirical materials, share
great areas of common interest when it comes to the evolution of human
societies, and each has much to gain from a thorough understanding of the
other.
Contents
The Primary Dynamics of the
Family-Level Economy and Society, 52
3 Family-Level Foragers 54
Case 1. The Shoshone of the Great Basin, 58
Case 2. The
!Kung of the Kalahari, 65
Prehistoric Foraging Societies, 82
Conclusions, 87
4 Families with Domestication go
Case 3. The Machiguenga of the Peruvian Amazon, 93
Case 4. The Nganasan of Northern Siberia, 112
Conclusions, 120
Part II: The Local Group
5 The Local Group 123
The Domestication of the Human Species, 127
• Theorizing
the Local Group, 129
1 Introduction 1
Theorizing Sociocultural Evolution, 2
Theories of
Economic Motivation, 16
The Evolutionary Process, 29
The Evolutionary Typology, 32
The Plan of the Book, 36
Part I: The Family-Level Group
2 The Family Level 41
In Search of Undomesticated Humans, 45
Theorizing the
Family-Level Society, 46
The Primary Dynamics of Local
Group Economy and Society, 136
6 The Family and the Village 141
Case 5. The Yanomamo of the Venezuelan Highlands, 142
Case 8.
The Turkana of Kenya, 194
Conclusions, 200
8 The Corporate Group and the Big Man Collectivity 203
Case 9. Indian Fishermen of the Northwest Coast, 204