The origins of society — the evolutionary emergence of distinctively human social organization — is an important topic within evolutionary biology, anthropology, prehistory and palaeolithic archaeology.[1][2] While little is known for certain, debates since Hobbes[3] and Rousseau[4] have returned again and again to the philosophical, moral and evolutionary questions posed.
- ^ Sahlins, M. D. 1960. The origin of society. Scientific American 203(3): 76–87.
- ^ Runciman, W.G. (ed.), The origin of social institutions. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 235–54.
- ^ Hobbes, T. (2010). Leviathan: Or the Matter, Forme, and Power of a Common-Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill, ed. by Ian Shapiro. New Haven & London: Yale University Press.
- ^ Rousseau, J.-J. 1973 [1762]. The social contract. In Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract and Discourses. Trans. G. D. H. Cole. New edition. London & Melbourne: Dent, pp. 179–309.