What is society?
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BOOK REVIEW
What is society? Juichi Yamagiwa and Shun Hongo (2020) Evolution of human sociality, vol 1. Primatology as a study of society. iCardbook. Shishousa, Tokyo; Juichi Yamagiwa and Shun Hongo (2020) Evolution of human sociality, vol 2. The past, present, and future of a society with empathy and family. iCardbook. Shishousa, Tokyo Crickette Sanz1 Received: 13 October 2020 / Accepted: 15 October 2020 / Published online: 24 October 2020 © Japan Monkey Centre and Springer Japan KK, part of Springer Nature 2020
Introduction With their Evolution of Human Sociality (Shishousa, Tokyo, 2020), Juichi Yamagiwa and Shun Hongo have met a critical need to summarize and synthesize the overwhelming corpus of research advances that has accumulated in our quest to understand the origins of social behavior. With the iCardbook format, the authors have chosen an innovative and refreshingly accessible platform to present this information, which effectively highlights connections between concepts. Within the 200 iCards comprising these two volumes, the reader is swept from the dawn of primate evolution to issues facing modern human societies today. Yamagiwa’s expertise as a scientist and university professor makes him the ideal guide for readers to probe the enduring question: where do human beings come from, and where must they go? Drawing upon decades of research experience and masterful teaching skills, the authors succeed in distilling complex concepts from a broad range of disciplines for communication to a diverse public audience. The authors introduce theoretical perspectives as well as highlight relevant research findings, and facilitate introductions to key figures such as Kinji Imanishi. The first six chapters are inspired by content from their massive open online course Evolution of Human Sociality: a Quest for the Origin of Our Social Behavior (Yamagiwa and Hongo 2015, 2017, 2019), which includes a brief history of primatology, an overview of Japanese monkey society, the setting for primate evolution, and violence * Crickette Sanz [email protected] 1
Department of Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis, One Brookings Drive, St. Louis 63130, Missouri, USA
and society. The last two chapters are reserved for an elaboration of Yamagiwa’s theory of primate social evolution, which is based on his studies of primate societies in the wild, including those of gorillas and Japanese macaques. Among other topics, this theory encompasses theory of mind, communication, transformation of the family, and the future of human society. Yamagiwa and Hongo emphasize the central importance of the evolution of human sociality as a topic which is relevant not only to academics, but also to the public at large. Further, they have found an innovative means of moving beyond articulation of this aspiration to reach these audiences. Readers will appreciate the concise translation of voluminous research findings and theoretical frameworks into two iCardbooks, each of which comprises 100 pieces of information that can be easily accesse
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