Alternatives of Social Evolution
* Book: Alternatives of Social Evolution / Ed. by N. Kradin, A. Korotayev, & D. Bondarenko. Vladivostok: FEB RAS, 2000
See: Multi-Evolutionism or Non-Linear Evolution Theory
Contextual Quote
"The notion of evolution is not popular in contemporary Anthropology. Many researchers do not use it preferring to write about transformation, transit, or change. Evolution for them is synonymous to dogmatic understanding of human history (Yoffee 2005; Pauketat 2008). However, even critics of evolutionism do not appear to reject the very fact of continuous social change. In prehistory people were hunters and gatherers and were integrated in small bands. Later some of them experienced sedentarization and transition to food production, began to found towns and invent complex tools. It would be ridiculous to reject such changes. Another point is that contemporary vision of cultural transformations differs greatly from the naïve ideas of the 19th century evolutionists (see, e.g., Earle 2002; Claessen 2000; Carneiro 2003, Marcus 2008; Hanks, Lin-duff 2009; Earle, Kristiansen 2010 etc.). Contemporary approaches are more flexible and are based on a much more considerable set of evidence. That is why it would be wrong to criticize the scholars of the past for their knowledge of something worse than ours. They ought to be estimated in comparison with their contemporaries. So, we believe that the notion of evolution has a right to exist, and for already several decades we have been elaborating the ideas that can be called “new wave evolutionism”, or Multi-Evolutionism or Non-Linear Evolution Theory)."
- A_Korotayev_and_D_Bondarenko et al. [1]
Contents
Nikolay N. Kradin et al. :
"Alternatives of Social Evolution consists of five parts.
- The first part includes theoretical studies of non-linear evolution.
- Articles on the alternative pathways of the prehistoric societies’ evolution form the volume’s second part.
- The evolutionary pathways of complex societies and state origins are the topics of the volume’s third and forth parts.
The closing part is devoted to nomadic societies."
ToC
I THEORIES OF SOCIAL EVOLUTION
1 Problems, Paradoxes, and Prospects of Evolutionism Henri J.M.Claessen
2 Alternativity of Social Evolution: Introductory Notes Andrey V. Korotayev, Nikolay N. Kradin, Victor de Munck, and Valeri A. Lynsha
3 Process VS. Stages: A False Dichotomy in Tracing the Riseof the State Robert L. Carneiro
4 The Change of Non-Change: Evolution of Human Regimesand the Structure of World History Nikolai S. Rozov
5 Cultural Evolution: Systems and Meta-System Alex Brown
6 East and West in History: A Short Abstract Leonid S.Vasiliev
II PREHISTORIC EVOLUTION
7 Thoughts on the Evolution of Social Inequality: A Paradigmatic Analysis Ben Fitzhugh
8 Hunter-Gatherer Adaptations in Semi-Desert Areas Alexander Kazankov
9 Hierarchy and Equality Among Hunter-Gatherers of the North Pacific Rim: Towards a Structural History of Social Organization Peter P. Schweizer
10 Monopolization of Information and Social Inequality Olga Yu. Artemova
11 Religion, Communication, and the Genesis of Social Com-plexity in the European Neolithic Paul K. Wason and Maximilian O. Baldia
III THE STATE FORMATION
12 On the Emergence of State Aidan Southall
13 The Political Economy of Pristine State Formation Charles S. Spencer
14 The Pristine Myth of the Pristine State in America Richard P. Schaedel and David G. Robinson
15 Cyclical Transformations in North American Prehistory Stephen A. Kowalewski
16 Early State in the Classic Maya Lowlands: Epigraphic and Archaeological Evidence Dmirti Beliaev
17 Some Aspects of the Formation of the State in Ancient South Arabia Mohammed Maraqten
IV ALTERNATIVES TO THE STATE
18 "Homologous Series" of Social Evolution and Alternativesto the State in World History (An Introduction) Dmitri Bondarenko
19 Once Again on Horizontal and Vertical Links in Structureof the Middle Range Societies Yuri E. Berezkin
20 The Stateless Polis: the Early State and the Ancient Greek Community Moshe Berent
21 The Chiefdom: Precursor of the Tribe? (Some Trends of the Evolution of the Political Systems of the North-East Yemen in the 1st And 2nd Millennia A.D.) Andrey V. Korotayev
22 The Society of Raybūn Sergey A. Frantsuzov
23 State and Administration in Kautilya`s "Arthashastra" Dmitri N. Lelioukhine
V NOMADIC ALTERNATIVES
24 Nomadic Empires in Evolutionary Perspective Nikolay N. Kradin
25 The Socio-Political Structure of the Pechenegs Alexey V. Marey
26 Mongolian Nomadic Society of the Empire Period
Tatiana D. Skrynnikova
457
27 The Mangyt Biy as a Crowned Chief: Chiefdoms in theNomadic History of Late Medieval Western Eurasia Vadim V. Trepavlov