On Human Nature: The Biology and Sociology of What Made Us Human

321 Pages·2020·4.485 MB·English

by  Jonathan H. Turner

“This is the best book yet written on social evolution. Jonathan
Turner synthesizes his life-work, from cladistics of human great ape
ancestors, reconstructing the biological steps that made humans
much more emotionally responsive, simultaneously allowing
greater brain size and more flexible social arrangements with
strangers. Blending symbolic interaction and interaction ritual,
early humans developed internalized symbols, self-control, and
group references. These let humans build larger, more complex,
stratified, and impersonal organization—turning against original
individualistic, freedom-loving human nature and submitting it to
the social cage. Turner traces the conflict of biological human
nature and social organization into post-modern societies and peeks
at our future.”
Randall Collins, University of Pennsylvania
“This remarkable book is both unusually comprehensive and at the
same time highly readable. After a slow start, sociology is now being
integrated with the findings of evolutionary biology, with Jonathan
Turner in the lead. This treatment of human nature and its evolution
is powerfully eclectic, using theories and data ranging from primate
ethology to theories of emotion to brain science, and includes some
pleasant surprises in the form of American Pragmatism and the work
of Mead and Cooley. A provocative synthesis.”
Christopher Boehm, Professor of Biological Sciences,
University of Southern California
“Jonathan Turner can be counted among the few in American
sociology who ask huge questions, master sprawling literatures, and
defy the imperialism of radical social constructivism. He takes
nature seriously and wants to know what nature means for
humanity. This book continues and extends Turner’s decades-long
project of systematically understanding and explaining foundational
concerns about humanity—that is, us, we ourselves. Not everyone will
agree with his story, but I commend it as important and fascinating
nonetheless. At a time when the authority of science itself is
increasingly publicly questioned, Turner admirably models a long-
view scholar taking genuinely interdisciplinary science seriously.”
Christian Smith, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Sociology,
University of Notre Dame
“This book by the internationally well-known sociologist, Jonathan
Turner, is the one that I personally have been waiting for. Turner is
a path-breaking intellectual in evolutionary sociology, neuroso-
ciology, and the sociology of emotions. On Human Nature is the
ultimate summary of his brilliant theory of what made us human.
His vision is truly breathtaking!”
Armin W. Geertz, Professor Emeritus,
Aarhus University
“Jonathan Turner is one of few social theorists who cross
disciplinary boundaries in a serious way, engaging biology, anthro-
pology, evolution, genetics, brain science, psychology, and so-
ciology. Rejecting the tautological logic of the ‘just-so stories,’ so
often associated with evolutionary work, Turner reveals the
labyrinth-like complexity of human nature. Turner is a sure-footed
guide through these labyrinths, rendering his insights useful for
thinking about a wide variety of social phenomena. Ultimately,
Turner’s On Human Nature is a cutting-edge work that should
matter to all social scientists.”
Erika Effler-Summers, University of Notre Dame
ON HUMAN NATURE
In this book, Jonathan H. Turner combines sociology, evolutionary
biology, cladistic analysis from biology, and comparative neuroanatomy
to examine human nature as inherited from common ancestors shared
by humans and present-day great apes. Selection pressures altered this
inherited legacy for the ancestors of humans—termed hominins for being
bipedal—and forced greater organization than extant great apes when
the hominins moved into open-country terrestrial habitats. The effects of
these selection pressures increased hominin ancestors’ emotional
capacities through greater social and group orientation. This shift, in
turn, enabled further selection for a larger brain, articulated speech, and
culture along the human line. Turner elaborates human nature as a series
of overlapping complexes that are the outcome of the inherited legacy of
great apes being fed through the transforming effects of a larger brain,
speech, and culture. These complexes, he shows, can be understood as
the cognitive complex, the psychological complex, the emotions
complex, the interaction complex, and the community complex.
Jonathan H. Turner is 38th University Professor of the University of
California System; Research Professor, University of California, Santa
Barbara; and Distinguished Professor at the University of California,
Riverside. He is also Director of the Institute for Theoretical Social
Science, Santa Barbara, California. He is the author of hundreds of research
articles and the author of more than 40 distinguished books, including
most recently The New Evolutionary Sociology (with Richard Machalek).
Evolutionary Analysis in the Social Sciences
A series edited by Jonathan H. Turner and Kevin J. McCaffree
This new series is devoted to capturing the full range of scholarship and
debate over how best to conduct evolutionary analyses on human
behavior, interaction, and social organization. The series will range
across social science disciplines and offer new cutting-edge theorizing in
sociobiology, evolutionary psychology, stage-modeling, co-evolution,
cliodynamics, and evolutionary biology.
Published:
On Human Nature: The Biology and Sociology of What Made Us Human
by Jonathan H. Turner (2020)
Mechanistic Criminology
by K. Ryan Proctor and Richard E. Niemeyer (2019)
The New Evolutionary Sociology: New and Revitalized Theoretical and
Methodological Approaches
by Jonathan H. Turner and Richard S. Machalek (2018)
The Emergence and Evolution of Religion: By Means of Natural Selection
by Jonathan H. Turner, Alexandra Maryanski, Anders Klostergaard Petersen and
Armin W. Geertz (2017)
Forthcoming:
The Evolution of World-Systems
by Christopher Chase-Dunn
Why Groups Come Apart: Fusion-Fission Dynamics in Human Societies
by Kevin McCaffree
Maps of Microhistory: Models of the Long Run
by Martin Hewson
On Human Nature
The Biology and Sociology of
What Made Us Human
Jonathan H. Turner
First published 2021
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2021 Taylor & Francis
The right of Jonathan H. Turner to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this title has been requested
ISBN: 978-0-367-55648-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-55647-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-09450-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Minion
by MPS Limited, Dehradun
With age, I realize more and more how much I owe to my mentors as an
undergraduate and graduate student. With gratitude that I will never be
able to express fully, I dedicate this book to:
University of California, Santa Barbara (1961–1965)
Tomatsu Shibutani
Donald R. Cressey
Walter Buckley
Thomas Scheff
Cornell University (1965–1968)
Robin M. Williams Jr.
William Friedland
Charles Ackerman
Leo Meltzer
Donald P. Hayes
Wayne Thompson
Other Books Authored and Edited by Jonathan H. Turner
Authored Books
American Society: Problems of Structure (1972)
Patterns of Social Organization: A Survey of Human Social Institutions (1972)
The Structure of Sociological Theory (1974)
Inequality: Privilege and Poverty in America (1976, with Charles Starnes)
Social Problems in America (1977)
Sociology: Studying the Human System (1978)
Functionalism (1979, with Alexandra Maryanski)
The Emergence of Sociological Theory (1981, with Leonard Beeghley)
Societal Stratification: A Theoretical Analysis (1984)
American Dilemmas: A Sociological Interpretation of Enduring Social Issues
(1985, with David Musick)
Herbert Spencer: A Renewed Appreciation (1985)
Oppression: A Socio-History of Black-White Relations in America (1985,
with Royce Singleton and David Musick)
Sociology: A Student Handbook (1985)
Sociology: The Science of Human Organization (1986)
A Theory of Social Interaction (1988)
The Impossible Science: An Institutional History of American Sociology
(1990, with Stephen Turner)
Classical Sociological Theory: A Positivist’s Perspective (1992)
The Social Cage: Human Nature and the Evolution of Society (1992, with
Alexandra Maryanski)
Sociology: Concepts and Uses (1993)
Socjologian Amerykansa W. Posukiwaious Tazamosci (1993, with Stephen
Turner)
American Ethnicity: A Sociological Analysis of the Dynamics of Discrimination
(1994, with Adalberto Aguirre)
Macrodynamics: Toward a Theory on the Organization of Human
Populations (1995)
The Institutional Order (1997)
On the Origins of Human Emotions: A Sociological Inquiry into the Evolution
of Human Affect (2000)
Face-to-Face: Toward a Sociological Theory of Interpersonal Behavior (2002)
Human Institutions: A New Theory of Societal Evolution (2003)
Incest: The Origins of the Taboo (2005, with Alexandra Maryanski)
The Sociology of Emotions (2005, with Jan E. Stets)
On the Origins of Societies by Means of Natural Selection (2007, with
Alexandra Maryanski)
Human Emotions: A Sociological Theory (2008)
Theoretical Principles of Sociology, Volume 1: Macrodynamics (2010)
Theoretical Principles of Sociology, Volume 2: Microdynamics (2010)
The Problem with Emotions in Societies (2011)
Theoretical Perspectives in Sociology (2012)
Theoretical Principles of Sociology, Volume 3: Mesodynamics (2012)
Theoretical Sociology: 1830 to the Present (2012)
Contemporary Sociological Theory (2013)
Revolt from the Middle: Emotional Stratification and Change in Post-
Industrial Societies (2015)
The New Evolutionary Sociology: Recent and Revitalized Theoretical and
Methodological Approaches (2018, with Richard Machalek)
Edited Books
Strategies for Building Sociological Theory (1979)
Social Theory Today (1987, with Anthony Giddens)
Theory Building in Sociology (1988)
Handbook of Sociological Theory (2001)
Herbert Spencer’s The Principles of Sociology (reprint) (2001)
Theory and Research on Human Emotions (2004)
Handbook of the Sociology of Emotions (2007, with Jan E. Stets)
Handbook of Neurosociology (2013, with David Franks)
Handbook of the Sociology of Emotions, Volume 2 (2014, with Jan E. Stets)
Handbook of Evolution and Society (2015, with Richard Machalek and
Alexandra Maryanski)