Routledge Complex Life: Nonmodernity and the Emergence of Cognition and Culture (Routledge Revivals)

Product Description This title was first published in 2000: Complex Life argues for the importance of the new perspective of non modern social theory in understanding human agency. Darwinian natural selection theory and complexity theory are used to provide new insights into human origins, mind and culture. Through bringing these ideas together it is argued that nature and culture are inseparably linked within human agency and that in consequence it is time to transcend the limitations of both modern and postmodern social science. This book argues that nature has never been controlled or transcended. Humankind is instead an emerged outcome of the historical interweaving of the environment, morphology, mind and culture. This wide-ranging analysis offers new insights into human nature for anthropologists and sociologists interested in human evolution, social theory or human agency. Review 'Some evolutionary biologists have drawn incorrect inferences about, say, incest taboos, because of their ignorance of anthropological data, or they have wasted everyone's time by starting again. Dean's review of incest in this book is a valuable correction.' Journal of Biosocial Science About the Author Alan Dean