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Societies, identities, and macrodemes
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 April 2025
Abstract
We examine the similarities and differences between Moffett's conceptualization of society and the core configuration model of social groupings. Anonymous societies correspond to the macrodeme level of coordination in the core configuration model, and recognizing that identity-based groups are defined by shared distinctiveness rather than territory encourages a more organic understanding of social groups.
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- Copyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press
References
Brewer, M. B. (1991). The social self: On being the same and different at the same time. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 17, 475–482.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brewer, M. B, & Caporael, L. R. (2006). An evolutionary perspective on social identity: Revisiting groups. In Schaller, M., Simpson, J. & Kenrick, D. (Eds.), Evolution and social psychology (pp. 143–141). Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Caporael, L. R. (1997). The evolution of truly social cognition: The core configurations model. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 1, 276–298.Google ScholarPubMed
Caporael, L. R., & Garvey, C. K. (2014) The primacy of scaffolding within groups for the evolution of group-level traits. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 37, 255–256.Google ScholarPubMed
Target article
What is a society? Building an interdisciplinary perspective and why that's important
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Author response
A society as a clearly membered, enduring, territory-holding group