Book

Nazaretian Akop

Anthropology of Violence and Culture of Self-Organisation. Essays on Evolutionary Historical Psychology. 3rd stereotype ed.

Москва, 2012, 256 p.

The book examines the prehistory and evolution of social violence as well as the successively developing mechanisms of cultural and psychological control of aggressive impulses. The hypothesis of techno-humanitarian balance, its empirical basis, corollaries and conclusions are discussed in detail. To verify the hypothesis, cross-cultural and comparative historical data are gathered, which show that in long-term retrospection, while technological might and demographic density were growing, the Bloodshed Ratio (i.e. the ratio of the average number of killings per time unite to the size of population) was not growing but rather irregularly decreasing. The author shows that any technology has been a threat for society until the society was psychologically adapted to it. Once the psychological fitting has happened, the technology is getting the less dangerous the more it is potentially destructive. The crucial phases in panhuman history are singled out. These were the creative responses of the culture to the challenges of global man-made crises. An analysis is made of the mechanisms of worsening crises and overcoming them. This historical experience is the prism through which modern global crises and the scenario for further developments are considered.
The book is meant for historians, sociologists, political scientists, philosophers, psychologists and other scholars in humanities and natural sciences, as well as for a wide readership.

РУССКАЯ ВЕРСИЯ: Антропология насилия и культура самоорганизации : очерки по эволюционно-исторической психологии. – 3-е изд., стер.