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Groups: The Evolution of Human Sociality.
(Edited by Kaori Kawai, Trans Pacific Press, 2013)

This volume is the product of a collaborative project based at the Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. Researchers primarily involved in three fields—primate sociology and ecology, ecological anthropology and socio-cultural anthropology—came together to discuss the shape and variations of groups as sympatric entities and the evolutionary historical foundations that have led to the orientation of groups in present-day human society. To that end, the chapters in this volume turn to non-human primates for comparative purposes to consider the nature of the evolutionary historical foundations of sociality.

In place of the past objective of “reconstructing” the ecology and society of early humans, the works in this book instead aim to re-identify the creation and evolution of that which is social and challenge the prevailing theory of groups in socio-cultural anthropology. Specialists on research into human beings and those studying non-human primates develop the debate about groups in the context of their own areas of expertise, at times in ways that extend beyond the boundaries of their fields.

Contents

Introduction—In Pursuit of an Evolutionary Foundation for Human Society / Kaori Kawai

Part I: The Evolution of Sociality
  1. The Sociology of Anti-Structure: Toward a Climax of Groups / Kaoru Adachi
  2. Assembly of Solitary Beings: Between Solitude and “Invisible” Groups / Motomitsu Uchibori
  3. From Whence Comes Human Sociality? Recursive Decision-mMaking Processes in the Group Phenomenon and Classification of Others tThrough Representation / Kōji Kitamura
  4. The Function and Evolutionary History of Primate Groups: Focusing on Sex Differences in Locational Dispersal / Naofumi Nakagawa
Article 1—A Group of Chimpanzees: The World Viewed from Females’ Perspectives / Noriko Itoh

Part II: The Organization of Social Groups
  1. The Ontology of Sociality: “Sharing” and Subsistence Mechanisms / Keiichi Omura
  2. Violence and the Autopoiesis of Groups: From the Ethnography of Pirates and Feuds / Ikuya Tokoro
  3. Forming a Gang: Raiding Among Pastoralists and the “Practice of Cooperativity” / Kaori Kawai
Article 2—Yesterday’s Friend is Today’s Enemy: The Huli Society of Papua New Guinea / Masahiro Umezaki

Part III: The Formation and the Development of “We” Consciousness
  1. From the “Here and Now Group” to the “Distant Group”: Hunter-gatherer Bands / Hideaki Terashima
  2. Perceivable “Unity”: Between Visible “Group” and Invisible “Category” / Toru Soga
  3. The Small Village of “We, the Bemba”: The Reference Phase that Connects the Daily Life Practice in a Residential Group to the Chiefdom / Yuko Sugiyama
Article 3—The “Group” called the Kenya Luo: A Social Anthropological Profile / Wakana Shiino

Part IV: Towards a New Theory of Groups
  1. Collective Excitement and Primitive War: What is the Equality Principle? / Suehisa Kuroda
  2. Agency and Seduction: Against a Girardian Model of Society / Masakazu Tanaka
  3. Human Groups at the Zero-Level: An Exploration of the Meaning, Field and Structure of Relations at the Level of Group Extinction / Takeo Funabiki
Conclusion—From “Groups” to “Institutions”: Summary and Prospects
Epilogue—The Legacy of Hitoshi Imamura: The Macro lies in the Micro / Ryōko Nishii
Notes
Bibliography
Index