This book embeds a novel evolutionary analysis of human group selection
within a comprehensive overview of multilevel selection theory, a theory
wherein evolution proceeds at the level of individual organisms and
collectives, such as human families, tribes, states, and empires. Where
previous works on the topic have variously supported multilevel
selection with logic, theory, experimental data, or via review of the
zoological literature; in this book the authors uniquely establish the
validity of human group selection as a historical evolutionary process
within a multilevel selection framework.
Select portions of the historical record are examined from a multilevel
selectionist perspective, such that clashing civilizations, decline and
fall, law, custom, war, genocide, ostracism, banishment, and the like
are viewed with the end of understanding their implications for internal
cohesion, external defense, and population demography. In doing so, its
authors advance the potential for further interdisciplinary study in
fostering, for instance, the convergence of history and biology. This
work will provide fresh insights not only for evolutionists but also for
researchers working across the social sciences and humanities.