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The Human Swarm: How Our Societies Arise, Thrive, and Fall - Hardcover | Diverse Reads

The Human Swarm: How Our Societies Arise, Thrive, and Fall

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The epic story, ultimate big history, and "remarkable intellectual achievement" (Quarterly Review of Biology) describing how human society evolved from intimate chimp communities into the sprawling civilizations of a world-dominating species

If a chimpanzee ventures into the territory of a different group, it will almost certainly be killed. But a New Yorker can fly to Los Angeles—or Borneo—with very little fear. Psychologists have done little to explain this: for years, they have held that our biology puts a hard upper limit—about 150 people—on the size of our social groups. But human societies are in fact vastly larger. How do we manage—by and large—to get along with each other?

In this paradigm-shattering book, biologist Mark W. Moffett draws on findings in psychology, sociology and anthropology to explain the social adaptations that bind societies. He explores how the tension between identity and anonymity defines how societies develop, function, and fail. Surpassing Guns, Germs, and Steel and Sapiens, The Human Swarm reveals how mankind created sprawling civilizations of unrivaled complexity—and what it will take to sustain them.

ISBN-13: 9780465055685

Media Type: Hardcover

Publisher: Basic Books

Publication Date: 04-16-2019

Pages: 480

Product Dimensions: 6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.60(d)

Mark W. Moffett is a biologist and research associate at the Smithsonian, and a visiting scholar in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. He has also authored four books. Called a "daring eco-adventurer" by Margaret Atwood, his writing has appeared in The Best American Science and Nature Writing and he has been a regular guest on The Colbert Report, Conan, NPR's Fresh Air, and CBS Sunday Morning.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Section I Affiliation and Recognition

Chapter 1 What a Society Isn't (and What It Is) 17

Chapter 2 What Vertebrates Get out of Being in a Society 29

Chapter 3 On the Move 37

Chapter 4 Individual Recognition 45

Section II Anonymous Societies

Chapter 5 Ants and Humans, Apples and Oranges 57

Chapter 6 The Ultimate Nationalists 66

Chapter 7 Anonymous Humans 79

Section III Hunter-Gatherers Until Recent Times

Chapter 8 Band Societies 97

Chapter 9 The Nomadic Life 112

Chapter 10 Settling Down 122

Section IV The Deep History of Human Anonymous Societies

Chapter 11 Pant-Hoots and Passwords 141

Section V Functioning (or Not) in Societies

Chapter 12 Sensing Others 161

Chapter 13 Stereotypes and Stories 173

Chapter 14 The Great Chain 184

Chapter 15 Grand Unions 193

Chapter 16 Putting Kin in Their Place 203

Section VI Peace and Conflict

Chapter 17 Is Conflict Necessary? 217

Chapter 18 Playing Well with Others 228

Section VII The Life and Death of Societies

Chapter 19 The Lifecycle of Societies 241

Chapter 20 The Dynamic "Us" 251

Chapter 21 Inventing Foreigners and the Death of Societies 261

Section VIII Tribes to Nations

Chapter 22 Turning a Village into a Conquering Society 275

Chapter 23 Building and Breaking a Nation 291

Section IX From Captive to Neighbor … To Global Citizen?

Chapter 24 The Rise of Ethnicities 309

Chapter 25 Divided We Stand 327

Chapter 26 The Inevitability of Societies 344

Conclusion: Identities Shift and Societies Shatter 355

Acknowledgments 363

Notes 367

References 402

Index 449