ABSTRACT

I discuss the evolution of strangers and foreigners, and the difficulties these assessments present for the success of human interactions. An essential feature of any society is the capacity of its members to distinguish one another from outsiders. In most species that live in societies, each member has to recognize every single member as an individual. I contrast such societies with those of humans and a few other animals in which membership can be anonymous - a condition that makes it possible for a society, when conditions are suitable - to grow enormous, and yet still remain distinct. How and why anonymous societies, allowing for strangers, emerged in our ancestors remains a question of significance to biology, anthropology, sociology, and psychology.

About the Speaker:

Mark Moffett is studying the life and death of societies in humans and other animals, currently with a grant from the John Templeton Foundation. He is the author of four books, most recently The Human Swarm: How Our Societies Arise, Thrive and Fall (2019), written as a visiting scholar at Harvard's Department of Human Evolution. The Human Swarm is described as a "book of wonders" in The New Statesman and "mesmerizing" in the Financial Times; the Quarterly Review of Biology called it "a remarkable intellectual achievement of sustained intensity, to be commended for navigating an important yet difficult area in between biology, psychology, sociology, economics, history, and philosophy." Dr. Moffett is widely known to nonscientists for his media appearances and numerous photographs and articles published in the National Geographic magazine.