Table of Contents
List of Figures ix
List of Tables xi
Preface xiii
Introduction 1
1 A Passion for Equality? 9
1.1 Discipline and Punish 10
1.2 The Reasons for Sanction 14
1.2.1 Cooperation 14
1.2.2 Envy 15
1.2.3 Fairness 16
1.2.4 Equality 19
1.2.5 Unexpected Unfairness 23
1.2.6 The Logic of Punitive Emotions 24
1.3 Normativity and Framing Expectations 28
1.4 Intentions and Outcomes 32
1.5 From Conventions to Morality? 37
1.6 Normativity in the Brain 43
Conclusion 49
2 Reversing Dominance Hierarchies 51
2.1 Dominance Hierarchies 52
2.2 Social Cognition 55
2.3 The Cement of Primate Society 58
2.4 How Joint Attention Transforms Our Expectations 63
2.5 Paleolithic Public Goods Games 67
2.5.1 Ecological Flexibility 68
2.5.2 Shifting Diet 70
2.5.3 Investing in the Future 74
2.5.4 Painful Delivery and Immature Children 78
2.5.5 Sexual Revolution in the Savannah 80
2.5.6 Supporting the Incapacitated 83
2.6 Cooperative Feeding versus Cooperative Breeding 84
Conclusion 90
3 Homo sapiens in Perspective 91
3.1 Explaining the Evolution of the Mind and Behavior 93
3.2 Modern Humans 96
3.2.1 Modern Human Expansion 97
3.3 Modern Brains 100
3.4 Modern Behaviors 105
3.4.1 Modern Africans 106
3.4.2 Modern North Africans? 109
3.4.3 Modern South Africans? 110
3.4.4 Modern Neanderthals? 112
3.5 Modern Cognition 116
3.5.1 Brain Evolution and Phases of Innovation in Africa 117
3.5.2 Early Innovations in the MSA 121
3.6 The Symbolic Species 123
3.6.1 Ontogeny and Perspective Taking 127
3.6.2 Modernity in Perspective 130
Conclusion 135
4 Hierarchy without the State 138
4.1 Lumpers, Splitters, and the Evolution of Human Societies 140
4.2 Neo-Evolutionary Typologies 143
4.3 Making Sense of Functionalism 147
4.4 Social Integration among Primates 152
4.5 Group Size and the Costs of Sanction 157
4.6 Beyond the Band 162
4.6.1 The Logic of Corporate Groups 164
4.6.2 The Social Division of Sanction 166
4.7 The Evolution of Societies and the Evolution of the Mind 170
4.8 Inequality of What? 175
4.9 The Persistence of Injustice 181
Conclusion 186
5 The Origins of the State 188
5.1 The Origins of the State 191
5.1.1 The Class Struggle Hypothesis 193
5.1.2 The Agricultural Hypothesis 194
5.1.3 The Hydraulic Hypothesis 195
5.1.4 The Warfare Hypothesis 196
5.1.5 The Circumscription Hypothesis 196
5.1.6 The King's Men Hypothesis 198
5.2 What Causes the Transition to Statehood? 201
5.3 Gratitude and Voluntary Servitude 203
5.4 Group Size and the Functional State 207
5.5 Partial Transition and Reversals 211
5.6 Democratizing Cold Monsters 215
5.7 Building Modern Democracy 221
Conclusion 225
Conclusion 227
References 231
Index 261
