Dunbar's Number
Published on 15. February 2019
Book
Hardback
196 pages
978-1-912385-03-4 (ISBN)
Description
Dunbar's Number, as the limit on the size of both social groups and personal social networks, has achieved something close to iconic status and is one of the most influential concepts to have emerged out of anthropology in the last quarter century. It is widely cited throughout the social sciences,archaeology, psychology and network science,and its reverberations have been felt as far afield as the worlds of business organization and social-networking sites, whose design it has come to underpin.Named after its originator, Robin Dunbar, whose career has spanned biological anthropology, zoology and evolutionary psychology, it stands testament to the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to human behaviour. In this collection
Dunbar joins authors from a wide range of disciplines to explore Dunbar's Number's conceptual origins, as well as the evidence supporting it, and to reflect on its wider implications in archaeology, social anthropology and medicine.
Dunbar's Number, as the limit on the size of both social groups and personal social networks, has achieved something close to iconic status and is one of the most influential concepts to have emerged out of anthropology in the last quarter century. It is widely cited throughout the social sciences,archaeology, psychology and network science,and its reverberations have been felt as far afield as the worlds of business organization and social-networking sites, whose design it has come to underpin.Named after its originator, Robin Dunbar, whose career has spanned biological anthropology, zoology and evolutionary psychology, it stands testament to the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to human behaviour. In this collection
Dunbar joins authors from a wide range of disciplines to explore Dunbar's Number's conceptual origins, as well as the evidence supporting it, and to reflect on its wider implications in archaeology, social anthropology and medicine.
Dunbar joins authors from a wide range of disciplines to explore Dunbar's Number's conceptual origins, as well as the evidence supporting it, and to reflect on its wider implications in archaeology, social anthropology and medicine.
Dunbar's Number, as the limit on the size of both social groups and personal social networks, has achieved something close to iconic status and is one of the most influential concepts to have emerged out of anthropology in the last quarter century. It is widely cited throughout the social sciences,archaeology, psychology and network science,and its reverberations have been felt as far afield as the worlds of business organization and social-networking sites, whose design it has come to underpin.Named after its originator, Robin Dunbar, whose career has spanned biological anthropology, zoology and evolutionary psychology, it stands testament to the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to human behaviour. In this collection
Dunbar joins authors from a wide range of disciplines to explore Dunbar's Number's conceptual origins, as well as the evidence supporting it, and to reflect on its wider implications in archaeology, social anthropology and medicine.
Reviews / Votes
`The celebrated Dunbar's number is now well established as a key measure of human social organisation - but how did it come to be, what are its many ramifications? Full of stimulating ideas, this truly engaging collection is an indispensable way of finding out, its themes as appetising for general readers as students and academics.' John Gowlett, Professor of Archaeology and Evolutionary Anthropology,The University of Liverpool.`The celebrated Dunbar's number is now well established as a key measure of human social organisation - but how did it come to be, what are its many ramifications? Full of stimulating ideas, this truly engaging collection is an indispensable way of finding out, its themes as appetising for general readers as students and academics.' John Gowlett, Professor of Archaeology and Evolutionary Anthropology,The University of Liverpool.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxon
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
3 black and white photographs, 8 graphs, 6 diagrams, 1 table, 1 map
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
467 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-912385-03-4 (9781912385034)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
David Shankland (Editor) is Director of the Royal Anthropological Institute, and Honorary Professor of Anthropology at UCL. His interests include Turkey, migration, the study of the Alevis, and the history of anthropology and its sub-disciplines.
Contributors:Simon Dein, Robin Dunbar, Clive Gamble, Esther Goody, Matt Grove, Russell A. Hill, Robert A. Foley, Christopher Opie, S.J. Smith, S.J. Underdown, James H. Wade.
Robin Dunbar FBA (Contributor) is Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at the University of Oxford. He has held chairs in biological anthropology (UCL and University of Oxford), Zoology (University of Liverpool) and Psychology (Universities of Liverpool and Oxford). His principal areas of research interest are concerned with social evolution in mammals.
David Shankland (Editor) is Director of the Royal Anthropological Institute, and Honorary Professor of Anthropology at UCL. His interests include Turkey, migration, the study of the Alevis, and the history of anthropology and its sub-disciplines.
Contributors:Simon Dein, Robin Dunbar, Clive Gamble, Esther Goody, Matt Grove, Russell A. Hill, Robert A. Foley, Christopher Opie, S.J. Smith, S.J. Underdown, James H. Wade.
Robin Dunbar FBA (Contributor) is Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at the University of Oxford. He has held chairs in biological anthropology (UCL and University of Oxford), Zoology (University of Liverpool) and Psychology (Universities of Liverpool and Oxford). His principal areas of research interest are concerned with social evolution in mammals.
Contributors:Simon Dein, Robin Dunbar, Clive Gamble, Esther Goody, Matt Grove, Russell A. Hill, Robert A. Foley, Christopher Opie, S.J. Smith, S.J. Underdown, James H. Wade.
Robin Dunbar FBA (Contributor) is Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at the University of Oxford. He has held chairs in biological anthropology (UCL and University of Oxford), Zoology (University of Liverpool) and Psychology (Universities of Liverpool and Oxford). His principal areas of research interest are concerned with social evolution in mammals.
David Shankland (Editor) is Director of the Royal Anthropological Institute, and Honorary Professor of Anthropology at UCL. His interests include Turkey, migration, the study of the Alevis, and the history of anthropology and its sub-disciplines.
Contributors:Simon Dein, Robin Dunbar, Clive Gamble, Esther Goody, Matt Grove, Russell A. Hill, Robert A. Foley, Christopher Opie, S.J. Smith, S.J. Underdown, James H. Wade.
Robin Dunbar FBA (Contributor) is Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at the University of Oxford. He has held chairs in biological anthropology (UCL and University of Oxford), Zoology (University of Liverpool) and Psychology (Universities of Liverpool and Oxford). His principal areas of research interest are concerned with social evolution in mammals.
Content
Chapter 1 - Dunbar's time and human evolution (Clive Gamble); Chapter 2 - From there to now, and the origins of some ideas (Robin Dunbar); Chapter 3 - From 150 to 3 Dunbar's numbers (Russell A. Hill); Chapter 4 - Inclusive hierarchies and the rank-size rule (Matt Grove); Chapter 5 - Monogamy and infanticide in complex societies (Christopher Opie); Chapter 6 - Untangling causality: multiple levels of explanation for human cognitive Evolution (Robert A. Foley); Chapter 7 - Lifting the gloomy curtain of time past: tracing the identity of the first cognitively modern hominin in deep history (S.J. Underdown and S.J. Smith); Chapter 8 - Ego-centred networks, community size and cohesion: Dunbar's Number and a Mandara Mountains conundrum (James H. Wade); Chapter 9 - About the curious power of dialogue (Esther Goody); Chapter 10 - Schizophrenia, evolution and self-transcendence (Simon Dein); Chapter 11- Dunbar's Number(s): constraints on the social world (Robin Dunbar); Contributors; Index.