TY - BOOK ID - 802417 TI - A treatise on social theory. PY - 1989 SN - 0521249066 0521249597 0521249600 0521369835 0511004745 051158346X 9780521369831 9780521249591 PB - Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, DB - UniCat KW - Sociological theory building KW - Social Sciences KW - Sociology KW - 316.245 KW - 316.3 KW - #SBIB:316.21H42 KW - 316.3 Sociale structuur --(sociologie) KW - Sociale structuur --(sociologie) KW - 316.245 Biologische theorieen. Sociobiologie--(sociologische scholen) KW - Biologische theorieen. Sociobiologie--(sociologische scholen) KW - Theoretische sociologie: sociobiologie KW - Social sciences KW - Social structure KW - Methodology. KW - Philosophy. KW - History KW - England KW - Social conditions KW - Organization, Social KW - Social organization KW - Anthropology KW - Social institutions KW - Social philosophy KW - Social theory UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:802417 AB - This second of three volumes sets out a general account of the structure and evolution of human societies. The author argues first that societies are to be defined as sets of roles whose incumbents are competitors for access to, or control of, the means of production, persuasion and coercion; and second, that the process by which societies evolve is one of competitive selection of the practices by which roles are defined analagous, but not reducible, to natural selection. He illustrates and tests these theses with evidence drawn from the whole range of societies documented in the historical and ethnographic record. The result is an original, powerful and far-reaching reformulation of evolutionary sociological theory which will make it possible to do for the classification and analysis of societies what Darwin and his successors have done for the classification and analysis of species. ER -