ORDER AND ANARCHY

Through the study of civil society, the evolution of social relations and the breakdown of social order, Order and anarchy re-examines the role of violence in human social evolution. Drawing on anthropology, political science and evolutionary theory, it offers a novel approach to understanding stability and instability in human society. Robert Layton provides a radical critique of current concepts of civil society, arguing that rational action is characteristic of all human societies and not unique to post-Enlightenment Europe. Case studies range from ephemeral African gold rush communities and the night club scene in Britain to stable hunter-gatherer and peasant cultures. The dynamics of recent civil wars in the former Yugoslavia, Chad, Somalia and Indonesia are compared to war in small-scale tribal societies. The author argues that recent claims for the evolutionary value of violence have misunderstood the complexity of human strategies and the social environments in which they are played out.

Robert Layton is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Durham. Recipient of the Royal Anthropological Institute’s Rivers Medal for his research, Professor Layton has written widely on anthropological themes, including The anthropology of art (1991), Australian rock art (1992) and An introduction to theory in anthropology (1997).

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ORDER AND ANARCHY

Civil society, social disorder and war

ROBERT LAYTON

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CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo

Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 2RU, UK

Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York

www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521674430

© Robert Layton 2006

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2006

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data
Layton, Robert, 1944–
Order and anarchy : civil society, social disorder and war / Robert Layton.– 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13 978-0-521-85771-0
ISBN-10 0-521-85771-6
ISBN-13 978-0-521-67443-0 (pbk.)
ISBN-10 0-521-67443-3 (pbk.)
1. Social stability. 2. Violence. 3. Social evolution. 4. Civil society. I. Title.
HM896.L39 2006
303.6ʹ2–dc22 2005029844

ISBN-13 978-0-521-85771-0 hardback
ISBN-10 0-521-85771-6 hardback
ISBN-13 978-0-521-67443-0 paperback
ISBN-10 0-521-67443-3 paperback

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

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Contents

Acknowledgements			page vi
1		Civil society and social cohesion	1
2		Self-interest and social evolution	46
3		The breakdown of social order	92
4		Warfare, biology and culture	138
References			174
Index			193

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Acknowledgements

Warm thanks to all of the following for their helpful comments: Frances d’Souza; Chris Hann and Julia Eckert on chapter 1, Rob Aspden on chapter 2 and Elizabeth Chilton on chapter 4. The constructive editorial advice of the three anonymous readers has also helped immensely in making this a more readable book. Much of the library research was carried out while I was a Visiting Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle, Germany, and I’m also grateful to Chris Hann’s colleagues for their help and advice.