Description

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Taking a macrosociological, global approach, Human Societies offers an introduction to sociology that is truly comparative, cross-cultural, and historical. It compares societies over time and across environments, emphasizing the dynamics of social change. Its clearly developed ecological-evolutionary perspective provides a powerful theoretical framework for understanding the array of social arrangements found in human societies over the past 100,000 years. Since industrial societies are introduced only after this theoretical base has been firmly established and older, simpler, and smaller societies have been examined in detail, students see their own society (and other contemporary societies) in a broader and more meaningful way. By showing how social arrangements are related to the environmental and technological contexts that societies are situated in, Human Societies encourages students to look for the reasons why social arrangements are the way they are, and why they change over time.

About the Author

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Patrick Nolan is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of South Carolina. An NDEA Title IV Fellow at Temple University, he has been recognized several times by his students as "one who has made a difference." In addition, in November of 2002 he received the Excellence in Teaching Award from the Alpha Chapter of the Mortar Board (Honors College), and in May 2005 he received the student-nominated Two Thumbs Up Award from Disability Services. Gerhard Lenski is Professor Emeritus at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and author of Ecological-Evolutionary Theory (2005), Power and Privilege (1966), and The Religious Factor (1961). He has been the recipient of the University of Michigan's Award for Teaching Excellence (1959), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1972-73), and the ASA's Career of Distinguished Scholarship Award (2002).