The deep origins of society: An assessment of E.O. Wilson’s Genesis

Abstract

E.O. Wilson’s Genesis: The Deep Origins of Societies is one of a series of short books where the author has tried to explain human societies using ideas and concepts from biology. While Wilson is to be lauded for his recent efforts to reintroduce the notions of group selection and multilevel selection, he still sustains an emphasis on only Darwinian selection and reveals a bias toward seeing selection for groups as a result of selection on individuals (as is the case for insects), perhaps entangled with selection on groups. The effort to conceive of human societies as an example of eusocieties of social insects ignores most of the sociological works on human and societal evolution; and as a result, the book is not convincing in its argument. Despite the pleasant writing style, Wilson and other biologists writing about human societies need to engage the almost 200 years of sociological work devoted to understanding the evolution of human societies.