Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c47g7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T11:30:29.597Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Social insects, merely a “fun house” mirror of human social evolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 June 2016

Hal B. Levine*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600, Wellington, 6140New Zealand.Hal.levine@vuw.ac.nzhttp://www.victoria.ac.nz/sacs/about/staff

Abstract

Social insects show us very little about the evolution of complex human society. As more relevant literature demonstrates, ultrasociality is a cause rather than an effect of human social evolution.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bodley, J. H. (2003) The power of scale: A global history approach. M. E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Carneiro, R. L. (1970) A theory of the origin of the state. Science 169:733–38.Google Scholar
Chapais, B. (2008) Primeval kinship: How pair-bonding gave birth to human society. Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tomasello, M. (2014) The ultra-social animal. European Journal of Social Psychology 44(3):187–94.Google Scholar
Wilson, E. O. (2014) The meaning of human existence. Singapore Books.Google Scholar