The human flock .. how our societies emerge, flourish, and fall (Part 2) - Mark Moffett

Translation: Nayef Al-Yasini This book attempts to answer a pivotal question: why have humans alone been able to reach this level of social organization that is unmatched by any other species of creatures? It is an exploration of human society from its earliest origins to the great civilizations present on our planet today, showing how humans have managed to establish and maintain societies of sizes and complexities unparalleled in the animal world. There are two main ideas on which Mark Moffett built his book: the first is that human societies and social insect societies are more similar than we think, or than we wish to believe; the second is the unique and complex form of human identity that determines who belongs to our societies and who is a stranger. The importance of the second idea stems from the fact that all other animals that build societies, such as elephants and primates, rely on personal recognition, and thus the number of individuals in their societies remains limited by this condition, around two hundred individuals. However, humans and social insects like ants are distinguished by their ability to live in large, anonymous communities, where identity is not a factor, allowing their societies to reach enormous sizes without dividing or disintegrating. With the rise of agriculture, stability, accumulation of possessions, technological development, and increasing population sizes, equality declined, and leaders emerged whose intervention became necessary for organization and conflict resolution. Here also appeared the need to establish markers that determine who belongs to a particular society and who does not, and how to deal with outsiders. While ants rely on scent to distinguish members of their community, humans have a wide array of identity markers, including language, clothing, and flags. Moffett takes the reader on a comprehensive, chronologically ordered journey through the deep history of humanity—from primates to hunter-gatherers—and branches out into related fields of knowledge such as archaeology, anthropology, ethnology, linguistics, and psychology to cover the points discussed.